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COPYRIGHT DEPOSfT 



CHILD CULTURE 



A HAND-BOOK FOR PARENTS AND 
TEACHERS, TELLING HOW TO USE 
MENTAL SUGGESTION AND CHRIS- 
TIAN TEACHING IN MIND TRAINING, 
FAMILY GOVERNMENT AND CHAR- 
ACTER BUILDING. 



By 

NEWTON N. RIDDELL 

Author of "Methods of Attainment," 
"Service and Bible Study," "Heredity 
andPre-NatalCulture," "The Psychology 
of Success," "The New Man," etc., etc. 



Remitten 1915 



THE RIDDELL PUBUSHERS 

Mailing Department 

7522 Garrison Ave., Chicago, 111. 



^<S'i 



Copyright, 1915 

BY 
NEWTON N. RIDDELL 



All Rights Reserved 



io 



£0_ 
NOV 24 1915 



CU414767 



CONTENTS 



I. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS 

Page 

Introduction 7 

View-Point and Purpose 8 

Old and New Ideals 9 

Education and Ethics 1 1 

Work and Growth 12 

Pre-Natal Education 14 

Heredity and Environment 15 

Ontogenesis and Philogenesis 16 

Variations in Development 17 

Traits Peculiar to Age 19 

Character and Efficiency 24 

II. NEURONS AND HABITS 

Basic Facts 26 

Habit and Character 28 

Habit Formation 29 

Habit by Doing 30 

Corrective Habits 31 

Habit and Training 32 

Explain to Children 34 

Play and Habit 36 

Habit Drills 36 

III. MENTAL SUGGESTION 

Suggestion Explained 38 

Mind Processes 40 

4 



4 Contents 

Pack 

Science of Suggestion 41 

Suggestion Applied 43 

Aggressive Goodness 45 

Limitations of Suggestion 45 

Truth and Suggestion 46 

Prefixing Character 47 

A Practical Experiment 48 

The Montessori Method 49 

The Art of Teaching 50 

Perceptive Training 51 

Memory Through Association 52 

Learning to Think 53 

IV. GRACE AND GROWTH 

Godless Ethics 55 

Knowledge Insufficient 56 

Baby Christians 57 

Creative Processes 58 

Divine Grace 60 

Obedience and Progress 63 

Love and Obedience 64 

Conscience and Obedience 66 

Perverting Children 67 

The Better Way 68 

Corporal Punishment 70 

Love Never Fails y^ 

Family Devotion 74 

V. LITTLE LESSONS 

Self-Examination 76 

Individual Peculiarities yy 

A Fundamental Law 78 

Silent Influences 78 

Partiality 79 



Contents 5 

Page 

Parental Authority 80 

Children's Rights 81 

Encouraging Decision 81 

Self-Govern ment 83 

Scolding and Threatening 84 

The Black Man 85 

A Willful Child 86 

Teachers and Governesses 88 

Parental Duty 89 

The Lost Boy 90 

Young People's Problems 91 

VI. SPECIAL DIRECTIONS 

Introduction 96 

Food and Growth 97 

Food and Character 98 

Medicine and Children 99 

Physical Reactions 99 

Physical Hygiene loi 

Moral Hygiene 102 

Energy and Activity 103 

Frugal Habits 104 

Self-Respect 105 

Sensitiveness 105 

Self-Protection 106 

Forethought 107 

Self- Sufficiency 107 

Expression 108 

Imagination 109 

The Affections 109 

Good Manners no 

The Sense of Honor in 

Kindness and Forgiveness 112 

Love's Way to Victory 113 

Personal Purity 115 



FOREWORD 

Fifteen short progressive years have 
come and gone since the first edition of 
this little book was sent out on its mission 
of love and service. Within two years 
from the date of its publication the Author 
received hundreds of letters from educa- 
tors, social reformers, parents and teachers 
expressing their approval and prediction of 
the good it was to accomplish. Nearly all 
of the principal educational journals, and 
scores of magazines and cosmopolitan 
dailies, gave commendatory reviews. Since 
then it has found its way into more than 
one hundred thousand homes and school- 
rooms. The many expressions of gratitude 
from parents and teachers indicate that it 
has accomplished some of the work pre- 
dicted for it. But the progress in child 
psychology and pedagogy, the application of 
mental suggestion to mind and character 
building, and the proven capacity and re- 
sponsiveness of young children to religious 
teaching and Divine grace require the writ- 
ing of a new book with the addition of much 
important matter. That the new book may 
prove even more helpful than the old, and 
be used of God in bringing the blessing of 
Jesus Christ to many children, is the cher- 
ished hope and earnest prayer of its Author. 
Faithfully, 

N. N. R. 



CHILD CULTURE 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS 
Introduction 

Divine grace and applied psychology 
make possible the development of every 
normal child into a strong, harmonious, 
self-respecting, moral character. Ex- 
periments prove that subnormal and 
abnormal children can be greatly im- 
proved by special training during the 
first seven years. Most bad boys and 
girls, delinquent youths, and even adult 
criminals, are the product of defective 
pre-natal and post-natal training. Few 
persons educate for parenthood. A 
woman will study for years to become 
proficient in some art. A man will at- 
tend an agricultural college and read a 
score of books and periodicals on stock- 
raising. Then these two will marry 
and presume to raise a family without 
7 



8 Child Culture 

cither having read a book on heredity 
or child training. Results: fine art, 
poultry, pigs and cattle ; but puny, sub- 
normal and delinquent children. For- 
tunately, a great awakening has come. 
Scientists and sociologists are demand- 
ing that children shall be better born. 
Thousands of thoughtful parents are 
responding. Child nature is being 
studied as never before. The seed sown 
by Seguin, Froebel, Locke, Spencer, 
Wundt, James, Hall and others is pro- 
ducing an abundant harvest. Child 
psychology and pedagogy have taken 
first place in the minds of teachers. 
The Montessori method promises to 
revolutionize primary education. The 
up-to-date Sunday school is translating 
the Gospel into character. Soon these 
combined efforts must produce a su- 
perior childhood. 

Viewpoint and Purpose 

Jesus said, "Suffer little children to 
come unto me, and forbid them not: 
for of such is the kingdom of God.'* 
Evidently He saw a spiritual element in 
the child that many psychologists and 
child-culturists fail to recognize. In 
our studies we shall try to see the child 



General Observations 9 

as Jesus saw it. We shall avoid tech- 
nicalities and the discussion of theories 
and systems because we want to confine 
these heart talks to simple, concise 
statements of facts and methods for 
daily use in the home and in the school- 
room. Thirty years of psychological 
research, and the personal study of 
over ten thousand children, including 
all classes and conditions, have given 
the Author some pronounced views 
concerning child nature and its devel- 
opment. 

Old and New Ideals 

The old idea of child training was 
largely corrective : the new idea is dis- 
tinctively constructive. The key-note 
of the old was reformation: the key- 
note of the new is right formation. The 
old stood for control, restraint, sup- 
pression : the new stands for liberty, 
direction, expression. The old con- 
sisted mostly of prohibitory "dont's" : 
the new is composed of intelligent 
"do's." The old aimed at govern- 
ment from without : the new insists 
on government from within. The old 
treated faults as something to be cor- 
rected by punishment : the new over- 



10 Child Culture 

comes faults by the development of 
counteractive virtues. The old allowed 
the child to grow up according to its 
inherent disposition, except when it 
violated some law : the new aims to so 
awaken and train the elements that 
make for right conduct that the child 
will not willfully violate law. The old 
said, ''What is bred in the bone cannot 
be corrected" : the new recognizes the 
stability of inherent tendencies, but has 
methods for their modification. The 
old assumed that the child has innate, 
savage proclivities that must be eradi- 
cated: the new insists that every nor- 
mal impulse in a child is a force that 
only needs directing to become poten- 
tial in right conduct. The old deemed 
it necessary to ''break the will," and 
compel submissive obedience: the new 
seeks to develop a strong will and to 
gain obedience from right motives. 
The old assumed that all children could 
be governed by the same methods : the 
new considers every child a unique 
problem requiring training adapted to 
its peculiarities. The old system of 
primary education compelled the child 
to memorize its lessons whether or not 
it had interest in them, or understand- 
ing: the new seeks first to awaken in- 



General Observations 11 

terest and create a desire for knowl- 
edge; then, by feeding this desire, to 
store the mind with assimilated knowl- 
edge, and develop faculties for future 
use. The old idea makes intellectual 
training the goal of education : the new 
will make personal efficiency and char- 
acter building the great essential, and 
righteous living the measure of culture. 

Education and Ethics 

In 1907 President G. Stanley Hall, 
speaking to an assembly of teachers, 
said, "The American public school sys- 
tem is the most extensive, the most ex- 
pensive, the best equipped, but the least 
effective morally of any public school 
system in the world." Why? Because 
intellectual training alone does not pro- 
duce righteous impulses. Character 
springs mainly from conscience, the 
emotions, the sentiments and the will, 
none of which receive special training 
under the present regime. Moral delin- 
quents graduate with honor from pub- 
lic schools and universities. This 
should not be possible. There is an im- 
perative demand for a public school 
curriculum that will include social eth- 
ics, character building and religious 



12 Child Culture 

training. This change is necessary not 
only for the good of the individual and 
the home, but for the protection of so- 
ciety and the state. No commonwealth 
can long maintain law and order, that 
neglects the moral training of its youth : 
no republic can long survive whose citi- 
zens lack faith in God. 

Work and Growth 

"If any will not work neither let him 
eat." This is wisdom. Growth de- 
mands action. Doing is a way of be- 
coming. Throughout all nature the 
struggle for existence is the law of de- 
velopment and continuity of species. 
When this necessity is removed from 
any species, weakness and extinction 
follow. Any law or custom that denies 
to children the opportunity of some 
regular work must prove harmful. All 
work and no play is bad; but all play 
and no work is worse. The men and 
women who have made history, and 
those of the present generation who 
are bringing things to pass, were not 
idle in youth. Children deficient in 
energy, who do not have to work, be- 
come lazy mollycoddles willing to live 
from the earnings of others. Those 
that are energetic but unemployed dis- 



General Observations 13 

sipate their forces in sports and vices. 
Idleness is fast becoming the greatest 
foe of American youth. Educators 
and law-makers should cooperate with 
industrial leaders to provide suitable, 
wholesome employment a part of each 
day for every child. Work and study 
should go together, and be so adjusted 
as to produce a harmonious develop- 
ment of body and mind. Knowing 
should alzi'ays include a trained ca- 
pacity for doing. Graduates should be 
equipped for some worthy vocation. 
Manual and industrial training should 
begin in the kindergarten and continue 
until graduation. Pupils should early 
become producers, and receive sufficient 
compensation to excite interest and 
encourage skill. Public schools should 
be made largely self-supporting through 
the labor of pupils. This idea put into 
practive would practically eliminate 
idleness and all its attendant evils. It 
would double the earning power of 
most families and make children partly 
self-supporting. It would greatly in- 
crease personal efficiency, self-reliance 
and independence. It would produce a 
superior manhood and womanhood, 
promote social and industrial equality, 
and foster true democracy. 



14 Child Culture 

Pre-Natal Education 

The education of a child should be- 
gin with its parents. The most effect- 
ive time for influencing the physical, 
mental, emotional and moral tenden- 
cies in a child is before its birth. 
Prospective parents should prepare for 
this sacred privilege by such physical 
training and hygienic living as are 
necessary to establish health and vigor 
of body and mind. They should be in 
perfect harmony. They should pursue 
such lines of study and mental activities 
as will tend to awaken latent powers, 
strengthen those that are weak and in- 
hibit those that are too strong. Ex- 
periments prove that external stimuli 
are registered in the nervous system of 
the unborn child. Brain-cells are most 
susceptible to impressions during their 
formative period. No amount of post- 
natal training can more than modify 
inherent tendencies. A nature that is 
formed aright tends to continue in a 
right course by the momentum of its 
heredity. Vice tendencies wrought 
into the soul make virtue and goodness 
difficult. Three months of wise pre- 
natal training will do more to deter- 
mine the natural possibilities and ten- 



General Observations 15 

dencies of a child than three years in 
school after the age of fourteen.* 

Heredity and Environment 

Dr. Charles Eliott, president emeri- 
tus of Harvard, says, "As between 
heredity and environment in the for- 
mation of a boy's character, heredity 
is the more potential." This is the 
statement of a general rule to which 
there are many exceptions. Some 
children seem to have no fixed bent, 
and are largely controlled by environ- 
ment. Others are so dominated by 
inherent tendencies that no ordinary 
influence will greatly modify them. 
Most children are a mixture of these 
two extremes, and are therefore sus- 
ceptible and responsive in some quali- 
ties and strong and persistent in others. 
Since both heredity and environment 
are inevitable, and one cannot take the 
place of the other, it is irrational to 
say that either is the more important. 
Hereditary and pre-natal conditions 
supply and determine natural tend- 
encies; environmental influences de- 



* See "Preparation for Parenthood," in 
the Author's work on "Heredity and Pre- 
Natal Culture." 



16 Child Culture 

velop, direct and alter them. The 
well-born child may become a crim- 
inal through bad environment; while 
one that is hereditarily bad, by proper 
training from infancy, can usually be 
developed into a moral character. But 
the fact that one of these forces may 
overcome the other is no excuse for 
neglecting or minifying the importance 
of either. 

Ontogenesis and Philogenesis 

Science tells us that ontogenesis, the 
development of the individual, repre- 
sents a curtailed repetition of phylo- 
genesis, or the development of the 
race. Therefore, we should expect the 
child in its growth from inception to 
maturity to repeat in a measure the 
traits of mind and character that have 
obtained in the race at different stages 
of its history. But under the law of 
elimination by disuse and acquisition 
by use, much that belonged to primi- 
tive man has been entirely eradicated, 
and therefore does not recur; while 
that which represents the more recent 
history of our race supplies the prin- 
cipal elements. Accepted science, fail- 
ing to apprehend the spiritual nature 



General Observations \7 

of pre-degenerate man, fails to per- 
ceive its correspondence in the child. 
But the guilelessness, and responsive- 
ness of baby-nature to Divine love, 
reveal a kinship to those dwellers in 
Eden who communed with God. 

Variations in Development 

The order of development varies 
with individuals. Even among normal 
children of the same family, there is 
a marked difference in the age and 
in the way in which the several ele- 
ments of mind and character come in- 
to expression. The musical faculty, 
when of average strength, invariably 
becomes active before the age of seven. 
It is said that no one ever became 
a great musician that did not begin 
training before that age. But other 
elements, such as the mathematical fac- 
ulty, certain emotions, and the higher 
moral sentiments, even when inherently 
strong, may be manifested before the 
age of five, or not until adolescence or 
later. A boy of good family may lie. 
steal, cheat, or be cruel, and show- 
no sense of reverence, kindness, or 
even justice, simply because his moral 
sentiments are still passive. But when 



18 Child Culture 

these are awakened, the lawless pro- 
pensities are brought under control, re- 
sulting in a complete change of disposi- 
tion. Thus character transformations 
are ever taking place in the developing 
child by the influence of awakening 
powers. From this we are not to con- 
clude that early delinquencies should 
be ignored, or that there is no press- 
ing need for correction; but it does 
teach us that the character revealed 
in youth is not an infallible index to 
the future man or woman. 

In the natural order of mental de- 
velopment, the infant first perceives. 
Repeated perceptions establish mem- 
ory. What it perceives and holds in 
memory awakens thought. Thinking 
develops the capacity to reason. When 
it has learned to reason about known 
phenomena and the things it has per- 
ceived and remembered, it comes to 
create and imagine tljat which it has 
not perceived. Thus the intellect de- 
velops from simple perception to the 
genius of imagination and creative 
fancy. But there are many exceptions 
to this rule. Some young children lack 
perceptive power, but want to know the 
how, why and wherefore of every- 
thing. Again, some elements of per- 



General Obsen'atiofis 19 

ccption may be more active than others. 
The child that readily perceives word- 
forms may fail in the perception of 
color, size, or proportion. In mental 
development unexpected changes are 
ever appearing. The mathematical 
prodigy may fall below average after 
maturity. Unusual precocity is no as- 
surance of sustained superiority, but 
rather a foreshadowing of premature 
senility. Likewise, dullness in infancy 
does not necessarily signify native in- 
capacity. Many men of genius were 
backward students in boyhood. These 
and similar facts prove the necessity 
of individualization, and reveal the fal- 
lacy of the old inflexible system of edu- 
cation, which tried to fit every child 
into a fixed mould and compel all to 
measure up to a certain standard. 

Traits Peculiar to Age 

For convenience of study, psycholo- 
gists divide the time from birth to ma- 
turity into three periods of seven years 
each. The first period is the one of 
greatest susceptibility. It predeter- 
mines all subsequent tendencies, and 
is, therefore, of the utmost importance. 
During this period the instincts of self- 



20 Child Culture 

preservation come into activity. Hab- 
its of physical co-ordination, self-con- 
trol, and all rudimentary tendencies of 
mind and character take form. Motor, 
sensory, and mental nerve-paths are 
established. But with this awakening 
of the instincts of self-preservation 
there is also a spontaneous expression 
of the higher nature, which gives, the 
capacity to accept spiritual teaching 
and receive Divine life. Therefore, it 
is at this time, and the earlier the bet- 
ter, that every child should be brought 
by precept and teaching into a loving, 
trusting, vital relationship with Jesus 
Christ. This definite Christian experi- 
ence, this new birth, is essential to all 
right formation. Christ in the heart 
becomes the spring-source of pure mo- 
tives, from which come all virtues, 
goodness and righteousness. Entrance 
into this experience does not require 
deep understanding, or maturity of 
judgment, but love, faith and obedi- 
ence — qualities natural to the baby. 
For this reason young children meet 
the conditions of the new birth easier 
than do adults. It is a grave mistake 
for Christian parents to postpone this 
all-important event to a time when sin 
has entered a child's heart. Of this 



General Observations 21 

Christian experience in babies as the 
true foundation for character building, 
we shall have more to say later. 

The second period is the age of ac- 
cepted accountability, the time when 
all receive and violate law, the period 
when appetite and desire, sex emotions, 
hyper-sensitiveness, egotism, selfish- 
ness and imprudence come into expres- 
sion. As the first period had in it a 
semblance of the innocence of pre-de- 
generate man. so this second period has 
a correspondence to that early age of 
human degeneracy in w^hich the savage 
instincts of the race found law^less ex- 
pression. Many excellent persons can 
look back and discover things that 
cause them to shudder as they review 
the deceptions practiced, the thoughts, 
feelings and indiscretions indulged, the 
ambitions that filled their imagina- 
tions, the foolhardy risks taken, and 
the dangers heedlessly and needlessly 
encountered. These retrospections 
should make parents and teachers wise 
and considerate. If a child has en- 
tered into a real Christian experience 
before this period, it has the sustaining 
power of Divine grace. It will err, 
but a quickened conscience and a pray- 
ing heart, aided by the Holy Spirit, 



22 Child Culture 

will find the way out. Whereas, if a 
child is allowed to enter this valley of 
desire without Christ, it is actuated by 
selfish emotions and desires, which be- 
come so much a part of it that indul- 
gence in them is a delight. The unre- 
generate child revels in sins that the 
Christian hates. But it is also during 
this second period that the great awak- 
ening of adolescence comes, the birth 
of higher mind-powers, emotions and 
aspirations. Wherefore all the greater 
need for sympathetic and careful guid- 
ance. With this new awakening, if 
not before, the average child, if prop- 
erly instructed, will come into a defi- 
nite, conscious religious experience. 
Even when the Christian life began in 
babyhood, there comes a natural re- 
newing, a confirmation with deeper 
understanding, at the time correspond- 
ing to the age when Jesus came to the 
consciousness expressed in the words, 
"Wist ye not that I must be about my 
Father's business?" Records show 
that over forty per cent of Christian 
conversions occur during adolescence. 
The boy that passes this period with- 
out the new birth is prone to lapse into 
hardness of heart or moral delin- 
quency. Over sixty per cent of crimi- 



General Observations 23 

nals commit their most vicious crimes 
between the ages of twelve and twenty- 
one. 

The third period corresponds to the 
age of racial transition from savagery 
to civilization. Young manhood and 
womanhood are struggling with the 
problem of self-mastery and the con- 
trol of vigorous, untrained emotions. 
Instinctive demand for liberty resents 
parental authority. Developing gender 
produces radical changes of body and 
mind. The instincts of young woman- 
hood rule head and heart. Love in- 
spires secrecy even to the point of 
deception. It has no sense but the de- 
sire for its own indulgence. It takes a 
wise mother to apprehend the needs of 
this crisis and so gain and hold the con- 
fidence of her daughter that she can 
guide her aright. The boy that is be- 
coming a man is full of conflicting 
impulses. Egotism usually outruns 
wisdom. Awakening intellect is skep- 
tical, questions authority, rejects the 
advice of father, and refuses to learn 
by the experience of others. Measured 
by his own consciousness there is no 
time in life when a man's knowledge is 
so sure, and self-confidence so suffi- 
cient, as between the ages of seventeen 



24 Child Culture 

and twenty-two. It is not always pos- 
sible for a father, however earnest or 
wise his efforts, to gain his son's confi- 
dence and hold it during this transi- 
tional period. But if he can make a 
chum of the boy, enter into his games, 
attend his class-meets, and live in his 
heart, he will seldom fail to make a 
manly man of him. 

Character and Efficiency 

In concluding these general observa- 
tions permit me to repeat with great 
emphasis that character building should 
be the chief object in education and 
child training. Even from a business 
point of view, character is more impor- 
tant than knowledge. What good is a 
boy that cannot be trusted ? What 
chance is there for men and women 
that cannot be depended upon? Em- 
ployers say there are fifty employees 
that know how for one that will con- 
tinue to do as well as he knows. Why 
are there so many educated failures? 
Is there not something lacking in home 
and Sunday-school teaching, and in an 
educational system that turns out so 
many delinquent, spineless, character- 
less, inefficient graduates? We are 



General Observations 25 

slow to apprehend the truth in that say- 
ing, "Out of the heart are the issues of 
life." We depend upon head training 
while the heart is full of unconquered, 
untrained impulses, and deficient in 
qualities essential to success. We must 
come to realize that conscience, kind- 
ness, reverence, patience, energ>% cour- 
age, application, watchfulness, thought- 
fulness, carefulness and faithfulness 
are the elements that make for effi- 
ciency, happiness, progress and good 
citizenship. 



II 

NEURONS AND HABITS 
Basic Facts 

Physiological psychology has dem- 
onstrated several highly important 
facts that everyone should understand, 
some of which are as follows :* 

1. All sensations, conscious thoughts, 
feelings and emotions are related to brain 
and nerve action. 

2. Stimuli (impulses caused by light 
waves, heat waves, etc.) pass over the 
sensory, or afferent, nerves to the brain and 
discharge through the efferent, or motor, 
nerves, resulting in sensation, volition, 
thought or action. 

3. Repeated discharge of a given stimu- 
lus through the brain establishes a nerve 
path of connecting nerve fibrils, which tends 
to regulate and control the discharge of sim- 
ilar, subsequent stimuli, and thus determine 
their effects on mind and character. 

4. Acts, thoughts, feelings and desires 
that are persisted in, or often repeated, are 
registered in the chemistry and structure 
of brain-cells, which, with their connecting 
fibrils, become the physical basis of similar, 
subsequent thought and conduct. 



* The following six propositions are taken 
from the Author's lecture on "Brain Build- 
ing and Soul Growth," which gives many 
interesting experiments. This lecture is 
published in full in his book, "Method." 

26 



Neurons a fid Habits 27 

5. When sense impressions or mental 
imapfes have been embodied in neurons, 
the soul's activities in connection with the 
brain reproduce these embodied images in 
the stream of consciousness. In other 
words, recallinia: is accomplished by the re- 
functioning of the neurons, which activity 
reproduces in consciousness their embodied 
images. 

6. Inherited brain-cells embody most 
definitely the impressions of early child- 
hood. The effects of these early impres- 
sions are changed only by persistent efTort. 
A child is usually more susceptible than an 
adult, mainly because its brain-cells are 
more responsive to new impressions. Brain- 
functioning results from either subjective 
or objective stimulation. When associated 
nerve-fibrils form contact in response to 
stimuli, nerve-energy is conducted from 
neuron to neuron, thus reproducing in con- 
sciousness the images they embody. By 
this process the phenomena of conscious 
feeling, thinking, willing and doing are car- 
ried on. 

From the foregoing facts we learn : 
(a) By repeating any mental image, 
thought, feeling, or desire, we may em- 
body it in brain-cells, (b) The brain 
center of any element of mind or char- 
acter can be strengthened by regular 
systematic use. (c) During the first 
ten years it is easy to establish the 
physical basis of a keen intellect, pure 
affections, noble aspirations, a firm will 
and a righteous character; but it is 
quite as easy to build the physical basis 
of opposite tendencies. 



28 Child Culture 

Habit and Character 

The outward expression of both 
mind and character is controlled largely 
by habit. Habits are formed by the 
repetition of a voluntary act until it be- 
comes involuntary, and in no other 
way. We will and must form habits. 
Whatever is done by habit is done 
easily and naturally. Most regular ac- 
tivities can be reduced to habit. There- 
fore, one of the primary purposes of 
all training, physical, mental and moral, 
is the formation of right habits. 

All know the power exerted by bad 
habits, the wreck and ruin wrought by 
nerve-paths built in violation of moral 
law, through which wrong choice and 
conduct persist. But few realize that 
right habits formed in childhood are 
equally potential in producing and per- 
petuating right conduct. Every life 
process, from the simplest muscular co- 
ordination to the most complex mental 
or moral activity, is to be brought to its 
highest degree of perfection by the for- 
mation of right habits. Careless per- 
ception and mental laziness in child- 
hood become fixed habits of thought- 
lessness, shiftlessness and mental indif- 
ference, which disqualify one for a 



Neurons and Habits 29 

studious life, or the filling of any place 
of responsibility. The efficient the 
great and the good are so largely be- 
cause of the potency of constructive 
habits. 

Habit Formation 

Habit-forming begins at birth. The 
purposeful motions of an infant soon 
become involuntary. The character 
elements are formed in the first few 
months. Regular times for feeding, 
bathing, etc., soon create an involun- 
tary demand at such times. By undue 
attention it is easy to make baby a ty- 
rant. The wise mother knows that 
many of the most helpful lessons of life 
are learned through tears and self- 
denial; therefore, she does not gratify 
every demand, but quietly, firmly per- 
sists in an intelligent course, to which 
baby soon conforms. The infant that 
is cuddled and rocked every time it 
cries, or is allowed its own way, gets 
a wrong start and forms brain-paths of 
selfishness, inconsiderateness, ungov- 
ernable temper — in short, a despicable 
disposition. Since the primary nerve- 
paths of habit are made during the first 
few years, it is imperative that they 



30 Child Culture 

be formed along lines of obedience, pa- 
tience, consideration for others, self- 
denial and self-control. 

Habit by Doing 

Habits are formed mainly by doing. 
It is the repeated experiencing of an 
act that builds a nerve-path. The re- 
peated playing of a piece of music 
causes the fingers to find the keys in- 
voluntarily. It is not enough to say to 
a child, ''You will remember to put 
away your playthings when through 
with them." The act must be prac- 
ticed without variation to become habit- 
ual. Likewise, the habit of obedience 
cannot be formed by admonition only. 
A child must be drilled in doing as 
directed. For this purpose simple acts 
that at first cause no resistance should 
be selected, such as telling a child to 
stand, to sit, to change position; or to 
do some simple task, like going through 
the house and closing all the doors 
without slamming. By such drills the 
habit of obedience to a command is 
formed. Immediate and exact response 
should be insisted upon; otherwise a 
tendency toward shiftlessness, careless- 
ness and inexactness is promoted. I f the 



Neurons and Habits 31 

habit of prompt obedience is fixed in a 
child's nature, it will tend to impel action 
in line with duty throughout life. Will- 
fulness is usually the outgrowth of dis- 
obedience. A child that has been taught 
to obey from babyhood seldom presumes 
to assert its will against parental au- 
thority, right, or duty. One may be- 
come so habit-bound as to destroy free- 
dom of choice; but the lawless spirit 
and lack of reverence for authority in 
the average American youth indicates 
that training in obedience is seldom 
overdone. 

Corrective Habits 

Bad habits are to be overcome by the 
formation of opposing ones. A wrong 
reaction is checked by the creation of a 
right action of greater potency. Thus, 
the habits of profanity, cigarette smok- 
ing, loafing, etc., are to be overcome by 
the creation of opposing ideals, and 
practicing them until the momentum 
of the new habit exceeds that of the 
old. Several years ago a well-known 
physician adopted a neglected boy, who 
had formed habits of disorder and 
shiftlessness. When he was brought 
into the home, he was assigned a special 



32 Child Culture 

hook in the hall on which to hang his 
cap. But he would walk heedlessly by 
the hook into the living-room and toss 
his cap into a corner. Repeatedly tell- 
ing him to hang up his cap made no 
lasting impression. Finally, the Doctor 
said, "Charlie, can't you remember to 
hang up your cap when you come in as 
the other boys do?" The boy replied, 
"No, honest. Papa, I just can't think 
of it." "Then," said the Doctor, 
"We'll have to give that memory of 
yours a little special training. Put on 
your cap; go out at the back door; 
come around, and in at the side door. 
Take off your cap ; hang it on the hook ; 
point your finger at it and say, 'There 
you are.' Now take it down and put it 
on; go out at the back door, and do 
just as you did before. Do this twenty- 
four times without stopping." It is 
needless to say that after this training 
the boy never came in again without 
remembering to remove his cap and 
hang it up. 

Habit and Training 

Any faculty of mind or element of 
character can be strengthened and 
trained by the formation of a habit 



Neurons and Habits 33 

that will exercise it. Thus, the habit 
of noticing in detail cultivates the per- 
ceptive faculties; the habit of writing 
down one's thoughts strengthens mem- 
ory and the power of expression. The 
habit of politeness cultivates agreeable- 
ness, suavity and self-respect. The 
habit of daily prayer strengthens rever- 
ence, faith, hope, conscience, etc. Even 
sub-normal faculties may be strength- 
ened and trained in this way. Up in 
the Northwest country there is an old 
Judge, who is widely known for his 
unusual capacity to quote law and court 
decisions accurately from memory. As 
a boy he was a dullard, and at the age 
of ten could not take the lessons of the 
primary school. There being no schools 
for sub-normal children, he was sent to 
the country to live with an uncle. The 
practical farmer soon observed that the 
boy did not notice anything, but went 
about like one in a dream. He at once 
began calling attention to things and 
compelling the lad to notice. Thus, if 
they were building a fence and the 
hammer was left behind, after awhile 
Uncle would say, *^Where did we leave 
that hammer?'* "Right by that crooked 
post, Uncle." "Well, well," his uncle 
would answer, "it's wonderful how you 



34 Child Culture 

see and remember things." At dinner 
he would tell Auntie how this boy was 
coming to notice everything, and what 
a help he was. This tactful encourage- 
ment so stimulated the lad that he after- 
ward said that he used to lie awake 
nights trying to locate everything on 
the farm so as to surprise Uncle. This 
habit of noticing in detail so increased 
and trained his perceptive faculties that 
after three years he entered school and 
kept up with his classes until he became 
a Harvard graduate. Later he took 
the degree of LL.D. at Yale. In tell- 
ing me of his experience the Judge 
said, **I consider that I was saved from 
a life of uselessness by the practical 
common sense of that dear old farmer 
uncle." 

Explain to Children 

The law of habit should be explained 
to every child. As early as the age of 
four most children can be made to 
understand that a stooping posture will 
produce round shoulders and a flat 
chest, and thus prevent proper breath- 
ing; how a quick temper will mature 
into a bad disposition or sullen nature, 
rob one of happiness and make him dis- 



Neurons and Habits 35 

agreeable to others; and how habitual 
disobedience in a little boy makes the 
lawless, bad man that has to go to jail. 
By taking the positive side, it is easy to 
show a child how right bodily habits 
produce a strong, erect body ; how con- 
trolling selfish impulses results in the 
self-mastery that makes a manly man. 
Thus, by explaining in a tactful way 
how and why habits form, and their 
power in influencing conduct, one can 
usually secure the enthusiastic coopera- 
tion of a child. The process is : First 
create the ideal and the desire for its 
realization in the mind of a child ; then, 
by encouragement and insistence, co7n- 
pel action unthoiit a lapse until the 
habit is fixed. 

Hillyer says : "A single omission will 
set back habit formation, make further 
omissions easier and defer indefinitely 
the time when the habit is to become 
second nature. If the parent or teacher 
neglects to notice the omission of the 
act to be formed into a habit, the habit 
is half undone. As James aptly puts 
it. 'Each lapse is like the letting fall of 
a ball of string which one is carefully 
winding up, a single slip undoes more 
than a great many turns will wind 
again.' " 



36 Child Culture 

Play and Habit 

Play should be directed and made 
purposeful. Otherwise it becomes idle 
indulgence and forms habits that re- 
strict development and foster vice, 
shiftlessness and laziness. It is the 
effort to discriminate, or to achieve 
something definite, that builds brain. 
Hurling a stone at a mark ten times 
will do more to develop exactness in 
muscular coordination, and increase the 
faculties involved, than the purposeless 
throwing of a stone fifty times. Mak- 
ing mud-pies with care develops skill. 
The mere piling up of blocks to see 
them fall accomplishes little, but build- 
ing block-houses develops constructive 
power. All games that require skill 
are helpful, but play that merely whiles 
away time is as dangerous to develop- 
ing youth as bad associates or question- 
able literature. 

Habit Drills 

Children are naturally adventurous; 
they delight in discovery. The wise 
mother takes advantage of these tend- 
encies, and by suggesting what and how 
to play, and directing games, causes 
the formation of correct habits. Dr. 
Montessori's wonderful play system, 



Neurons and Habits 37 

which educates the child by encourag- 
ing purposeful games, investigation, 
and learning by doing, is worthy of 
careful study and emulation in every 
home. Rhythmic motion, singing 
games and other regulated forms of 
bodily action not only produce poise, 
strength, ease and grace, but have a 
strong reflex influence on the artistic 
sense, self-respect and self-confidence. 
Building, making things, working with 
mechanical toys, drawing, etc., with a 
purpose, increase perceptive power and 
form the mental habits essential to a 
studious life. Children playing together 
under the direction of a tactful in- 
structor readily form habits of polite- 
ness, gentleness and kindness to others. 
The boy that learns to play fair, win 
honestly, and to lose without complaint 
or resentment will be strengthened for 
manhood's trials. The lad that is per- 
mitted to cheat is likely to continue in 
dishonesty when mature. It takes tact, 
time, patience and persistence to build 
right habits into brain-paths, but it is 
worth while.* 



* For extensive, detailed descriptions of 
habit drills the reader is referred to V. M. 
Hillyer's book on "Child Training," of chil- 
dren under seven. 



Ill 

MENTAL SUGGESTION 
Suggestion Explained 

Mental suggestion is a way of mak- 
ing an effective impression; a process 
of directing mind- force to the accom- 
plishment of a definite purpose; a 
method of influencing vital functions, 
correcting faults, embodying ideals, 
and building mind and character. It is 
neither hypnotism nor mental magic, 
but the practical application of a law 
of mind as old as humanity. It is easy 
to learn, safe to employ and sure of 
results. 

Generally speaking, all sensory and 
subjective impressions become sugges- 
tions; but only when impressions are 
strong enough to affect vital functions 
or definitely modify mind or character 
do they become suggestions in a tech- 
nical sense. If you draw a pencil 
lightly across a blotter, you produce a 
superficial mark that is easily erased; 
but by retracing the line several times 
38 



Mental Suggestion 39 

you make a deep impression, and so 
press the lead into the paper that it can 
hardly be removed. You may, by bear- 
ing down hard, produce the same result 
with a single stroke, but it is easier 
done by retracing. Likewise, if you 
say to a child, ''Always close a door 
gently," but fail to secure its attention, 
your words make so light an impres- 
sion that they are quickly forgotten. 
Whereas, by concentrating your mind 
upon the idea, securing the child's at- 
tention, and together repeating the sen- 
tence with intense interest, you may 
make a deep, persistent impression that 
will recur in its consciousness when- 
ever it starts to close a door. Now, 
this effective, persistent impression is 
what psychologists call a suggestion. 
It differs from the superficial impres- 
sion only in power and permanency. 
Under right conditions one may make 
such an impression, or lodge a sugges- 
tion, as it is called, by pronouncing a 
sentence once ; but generally it is easier 
and more effectively done by prolonged 
attention and repetition. By this proc- 
ess any fact or ideal that can be put 
into words may be so lodged in the soul 
and embodied in neurons as to become 
an integral part of the child. 



40 Child Culture 

To use auto-suggestion in self -im- 
provement one should see clearly and 
hold in mind the fact or ideal to be 
lodged. Then affirm it in words, to 
give it form. Love it, to give it life. 
Desire and will it, to give it power and 
permanency. By continuing this men- 
tal attitude the idea will become em- 
bodied. By this means one may cor- 
rect faults, improve the memory, gain 
self-control, or develop the capacity for 
the expression of any quality or virtue. 
In formulating a suggestion one should 
affirm the positive, as, *T can," or *'I 
will," rather than the negative, "I can- 
not," or "I will not." The one strength- 
ens; the other weakens. One should 
always affirm the exact truth, and thus 
avoid embodying a lie. 

Mind Processes 

Man has an outer and an inner con- 
sciousness generally referred to as the 
objective mind and the subjective mind. 
The soul functioning in conjunction 
with the brain results in conscious sen- 
sation, thought and volition. Its func- 
tioning apart from the brain results in 
subjective mentations and involuntary 
impulses. All strong objective impres- 



Mental Suggestion 41 

sions enter the subjective nature and 
affect its activities. All teaching ad- 
dressed to the objective consciousness 
is effective to the degree that it is reg- 
istered in the subjective. The subjec- 
tive self is limited in objective percep- 
tion and expression to the functional 
power of the brain, and the sense 
organs. 

It is a law of action that the strong- 
est impulse at any given time controls 
conduct. It is a law of character build- 
ing that those suggestions most often 
and most impressively lodged be- 
come most potential. Therefore, to 
strengthen any power of mind or trait 
of character it is only necessary to 
lodge with sufficient emphasis such sug- 
gestions as are needed to produce the 
desired results. 



Science of Suggestion 

A mental adept, by training in con- 
centration, is able to create and con- 
tinue in consciousness a strong, clear, 
mental image, which is communicated 
telepathically to persons in a state of 
receptivity. This is the secret of his 
achievements. His words, signs and 
incantations induce attention, but are 



42 Child Culture 

powerless to communicate the image 
were it not held definitely in his mind. 
Some persons have unusual suggestive 
power by nature, but all may acquire it 
by daily concentration, and the habit of 
interior clear-seeing — in other words, 
by the practice of creating a clear, 
strong mental image, and persisting in 
seeing it for a few minutes without 
deviation. Whoever can continue to 
see the mental image of an ideal as a 
reality, to the exclusion of its opposite, 
has the power of effective suggestion. 
The Psychotherapist sees mentally 
the perfection of body and function 
that he would have his patient realize. 
His treatment consists in creating this 
image in the subjective nature of his 
patient ; to the degree that he succeeds, 
is his treatment effective. The same 
law applies to mind and character 
building. The first essential is to cre- 
ate and hold a definite thought-form 
of the thing to be communicated. The 
second is to secure a state of receptivity 
in the child. The third is to express 
the mental image in concise words, 
slowly, earnestly and impressively. 
When this is done several times with 
intense attention, the suggestion will be 
lodged. To deepen and strengthen an 



Mental Suggestion 43 

impression it should be gone over sev- 
eral times a day until the ideal becomes 
fixed in the soul and its form embodied 
in neurons. The main thing is the cre- 
ation and psychic communication of 
the ideal when the words are pro- 
nounced. 

Suggestion Applied 

Mental suggestion can be used in 
the treatment of mental and moral de- 
fects quite as successfully as in the 
treatment of functional diseases. Sup- 
pose a child is given to stealing. It 
should first be shown the necessity of 
everyone recognizing the property 
rights of others, and the wrong, weak- 
ness and wickedness of stealing. When 
it is convinced of the wrong and wants 
to do right, one should create and hold 
the image of exact honesty in the mind 
and have the child affirm, *'I do not 
want to steal. I can, I will be honest." 
When this new mental creation is 
strong enough to exceed in potency the 
tendency to steal, the child may be said 
to be cured. Whipping and other 
forms of corporal punishment are po- 
tential to the degree that they lodge the 
required suggestion. But a deep im- 



44 Child Culture 

pression made by mental means may be 
quite as effectual. 

In using suggestion, the age, devel- 
opment and peculiarities of a child 
must always be taken into account. 
What is proper at one time may be 
harmful at another. What is right for 
one child at a given age, may, because 
of difference in development, tempera- 
ment or disposition, be wrong for an- 
other. Some children are more sus- 
ceptible and responsive to the influ- 
ence of suggestion than others; but pa- 
tient, persistent effort wisely directed is 
sure to bring results in all. Sudden, radi- 
cal changes are not to be expected ; they 
sometimes occur, but gradual growth 
alone gives permanency to character. 

To influence a child one must exer- 
cise self-control, judgment and tact. 
One should not attempt to lodge a sug- 
gestion when angry, or when a child is 
angry. The thing to be accomplished 
should be explained in such a way as 
to secure confidence and cooperation. 
The child should be made to feel that 
it has the love and sympathy of the 
parent, and that the two are going to 
work together for a definite purpose 
with all assurance that they will suc- 
ceed. 



Mental Suggestion 45 

Aggressive Goodness 

The main use of mental suggestion 
is not in the treatment of mental de- 
fects and moral obliquities, but in 
awakening, training and developing 
those elements of mind and character 
that make for strength, efficiency, self- 
respect, honesty, charity and positive 
goodness. By putting the ideals of 
these into suggestions and lodging them 
in the subjective mind of a young 
child, they become controlling factors. 
As an ounce of prevention is better 
than a pound of cure, so a few strong, 
positive suggestions of purity, honesty, 
temperance and loyalty lodged early in 
a child's nature are far better than 
much corrective treatment. It is easier 
to keep a child right than to correct it 
when it has gone wrong. The wise 
parent apprehends possible temptations 
from within and without, and builds 
strongly against them before they 
appear. 

Limitations of Suggestion 

Suggestion is limited to altering the 
soul's activities and expressions. It 
does not change the heart, the source 



46 Child Culture 

of primary impulses. It is confined to 
influencing and cannot regenerate, nei- 
ther can it take the place of Divine 
grace. To expect or attempt to achieve 
by suggestion, brain-building, habit, or 
ethical culture, that which can only be 
done by spiritual generation and growth 
in grace is irrational and unscientific. 
This subject will be considered at 
length in a subsequent chapter. 

Truth and Suggestion 

Jesus said, "As a man thinketh in his 
heart, so is he." ''By thy words thou 
shalt be justified, and by thy words 
thou shalt be condemned." Thoughts 
are mental creations. Desire gives 
them life; will gives them power; 
words give them form and expression, 
by which they are lodged in a soul and 
embodied in neurons. Thus truth ex- 
pressed in words becomes a living, po- 
tent, permanent influence for good. 
But a lie wrought into the soul weak- 
ens, corrodes and defiles. It is like 
virus in the blood, or a faulty timber in 
a building. A physician may give a 
favorable prognosis to allay fear and 
inspire hope. Likewise, a parent or 
teacher may encourage the timid, dull, 



Mental Suggestion 47 

or wayward child with affirmations that 
represent the ideal rather than the pres- 
ent reality. But the only sane, right- 
eous course is to affirm truth and only 
truth. Thus a child purposes in its 
heart to obey, but through conflicting 
impulses and temptations is often dis- 
obedient. The truth should be de- 
clared, **You want to be obedient. You 
can be, etc." By the repetition of the 
ideal the child is strengthened in its 
will and purpose, making obedience 
easy and habitual. 

Prefixing Character 

The proper time to correct a child's 
disposition by suggestion is when it is 
good-natured and removed from temp- 
tation. By prefixing in the mind what 
one will or will not do under a given 
provocation it is possible to substan- 
tially predetermine conduct. Thus, sup- 
pose a child has a violent temper. This 
tendency, whether hereditary or ac- 
quired, is related to psychic conditions 
and neurons, which, in response to 
stimuli, react in anger. Now what is 
wanted is to prefix the soul while it is 
calm against such reactions. Sugges- 
tions calculated to accomplish this are : 



48 Child Culture 

I can control my temper. I will con- 
trol the expression of this evil impulse. 
I will repeat this over and over in the 
presence of temptation until I stop get- 
ting angry at every provocation. It 
may not be possible to so influence a 
child that it will never get angry; but 
patient, persistent training will check 
the temper under ordinary provocation 
and restrict it from violence even under 
trying circumstances. 

A Practical Experiment 

The foregoing proposition was pre- 
sented at a Chautauqua Assembly. The 
following day I was invited out to dine. 
When dessert was served, which con- 
sisted of ice-cream and cake, a four- 
year-old boy accepted instead some milk 
and crackers, eating it cheerfully. After 
dinner I congratulated his mother on 
the good behavior of her boy, when, 
to my surprise, she said: *This is un- 
usual, and his papa and I are delighted. 
He is an only child and being of a nerv- 
ous temperament we have allowed him 
to have his own way. Yesterday I 
attended your lecture and noted what 
you said about prefixing decision in the 
absence of temptation. This morning. 



Mental Suggestion 49 

when it was decided to have ice-cream 
for dessert, I thought it a good oppor- 
tunity to test the method. The boy is 
fond of ice-cream but it does not agree 
with him. After breakfast, when he 
was not hungry, I took him in my arms 
and told him what w^e were to have for 
dinner. I reminded him that ice-cream 
always made him sick, so we must get 
him something else. We talked over 
what he would like and decided that he 
should have milk and crackers, then he 
would be well and could go out to the 
grounds. He agreed. Several times 
during the morning we repeated to- 
gether what he was to have for his des- 
sert. He has been indulged and spoiled, 
and I tell you frankly, if his will had 
not been prefixed he would have had 
his portion of cream or made it uncom- 
fortable for all of us." 

The Montessori Method 

The Montessori method gives spe- 
cific and detailed directions for awak- 
ening and educating the senses, powers 
of perception, memory and imagina- 
tion; also the emotions and higher sen- 
timents. Dr. Montessori's system is 
largely the outgrowth of experiments 



50 Child Culture 

with defective and sub-normal chil- 
dren; but normal children trained by 
her methods progress much faster with 
less effort, and pass higher examina- 
tions at a given age, than under the old 
regime. The essentials of the system 
are the tactful awakening of natural 
but intense interest, and the wise direc- 
tion of this interest to the acquisition 
of useful knowledge and the develop- 
ment of mental faculties. The Doctor 
aims to systematically and harmoni- 
ously develop all of the functions of 
body and mind. Concerning intellec- 
tual training she says: 'The teacher 
must seek to limit the field of the child's 
consciousness to the subject of the les- 
son. For this she should use a method 
tending to isolate the inner attention of 
the child, and fix it upon the perception 
of the fact or thing to be learned." 

The Art of Teaching 

Once secure a child's enthusiastic in- 
terest in a subject and it will educate 
itself along that line. If there is but 
one hour for study it is better to spend 
three- fourths of that time, if need be, 
in creating a desire to know, than the 
whole time trying to drill something 



Mental Suggestion 51 

into a child's mind that it does not care 
to know. Experience proves that what- 
ever occupies an active mind to the ex- 
clusion of everything else is never for- 
gotten. A divided attention is sure to 
result in an imperfect perception, hence 
a faulty memory. One thing at a time 
is the way of exact education, but a 
child should not be required to concen- 
trate long enough to become wearied. 

Perceptive Training 

To increase and train perceptive 
power in a child the teacher should first 
secure attention by awakening interest, 
then point out details of the thing to 
be perceived. This noticing in detail 
will make an accurate, lasting impres- 
sion. Suppose a child is to be trained 
in perception of form and location. A 
good subject is the study of the geog- 
raphy of a state. Boundary lines and 
the principal rivers should be carefully 
traced, and the location and relative 
position of towns and cities pointed out. 
These details gone over several times 
with attentive effort to notice form, 
size and relative position will increase 
perceptive power. Likewise, in the per- 
ception of colors, tones, things, facts, 



52 Child Culture 

truths, ideas ; in short, everything about 
which one would have exact knowl- 
edge, it is the effort to discriminate and 
perceive in detail that develops capac- 
ity. This method may be supplemented 
by suggestion, thus: Say to the child, 
"You will notice this and that. You 
will not forget, etc." One child will 
readily perceive and recall forms, but 
will not remember names. Another 
may perceive both of these but forget 
places. Therefore, special attention 
should be given to the thing a child 
fails to notice, and to lodge sugges- 
tions calculated to strengthen deficient 
faculties. 

Memory Through Association 

Memory, like perception, is a com- 
plex function of the mind resulting 
from the combined activity of many 
primary elements, some of which may 
be strong while others are weak. There- 
fore, memory specialists lay much stress 
on associating things difficult to remem- 
ber with those easily recalled; and 
connecting newly acquired facts or per- 
ceptions with those already fixed. Thus 
if one have a good memory of faces, 
but a poor memory of names, by habit- 



Mental Suggestion 53 

ually pronouncing the name whenever 
the face is seen or thought of, the asso- 
ciation will soon make one recall the 
other. Or, if a child has a good verbal 
memory, but lacks perception of order, 
by naming the details of a process in 
the order in which they come, recalling 
the names will reproduce the mental 
image of the order. 

To use suggestion in memory cul- 
ture, one should require a child to fix 
its mind intently on the thing to be re- 
membered, and while thus thinking 
with concentration, repeat slowly and 
impressively the facts, figures or forms 
of things to be recalled, then say ear- 
nestly, "You can, you will, remember 
this." Here repeat the thing to be re- 
membered. By encouraging this defi- 
nite method of fixing things in the 
mind and refunctioning them at will, 
the process will soon become habitual 
and thus form the basis of accurate 
perception and a good memory for life. 

Learning to Think 

Every child should be taught to rea- 
son. It should be encouraged to dis- 
cern the relations of cause and effect. 
It should be induced to find out for it- 



54 Child Culture 

self the why and wherefore of things; 
to make its own plans; to weigh facts 
and draw conclusions. If, instead of 
answering questions, one supply a child 
with the necessary facts, and teach it 
how to make deductions, it will soon 
learn to think out the answers to many 
of its problems, and thus increase and 
train the reasoning faculties. This 
method, however, should not be over- 
done. It is unwise to crowd any part 
of a child's education beyond the nat- 
ural order of development. There is 
a temptation to encourage precocious 
children to go beyond their grades, but 
such should rather have their energies 
directed to athletic sports and physical 
culture. Teach the child to delight in 
a well- formed, strong, pure body as a 
means to prolonged health, happiness 
and efficiency. 



TV 
GRACE AND GROWTH 

Godless Ethics 

In this chapter we are to study meth- 
ods of Christian character building. 
In the preceding chapters we have seen 
how new forms of intelligence, ideals 
and habits are embodied in neurons, 
and how suggestion may be used in in- 
fluencing natural tendencies. But let 
no one suppose that such methods, how- 
ever persistently and skillfully em- 
ployed, can produce a regenerate heart 
or primary righteous impulses. Some 
people reject spiritual birth and Divine 
grace. They want the sunshine with- 
out the sun. the effect without the 
cause, the Christian virtues without 
Christ. This is irrational, impossible. 
No one can come to God through eth- 
ical living and noble deeds only. There 
is an inherent necessity for spiritual 
quickening. "Ye must be born again." 
applies to all. From the beginning God 
was the life-giver, the law-giver, the 
55 



56 Child Culture 

grace-giver. From these all true ethics 
and virtues have come. Unregenerate 
moral people are what they are largely- 
through good inherent tendencies from 
Christian ancestors and religious in- 
fluences. In other words they are liv- 
ing on inherited and appropriated 
grace. But, since we cannot separate 
an attribute from its source and retain 
its potency, the momentum of hered- 
itary Christian impulses must soon run 
down unless vitalized. Hence, God- 
less ethics are powerless to produce and 
perpetuate righteousness. The place 
to begin Christian character building is 
in the heart. The first essential is 
regeneration. 

Knowledge Insufficient 

Educators say that all purposeful 
right conduct is necessarily coordinant 
with right knowledge. But right ac- 
tion does not always follow right 
knowledge. Why? Because some- 
thing more than knowledge is needed 
to control the will. Jesus said, 'Tf a 
man love me he will keep my words." 
Here is another motive. Both knowl- 
edge and love are essential. Volition 
springs from two sources, knowing and 



Grace and Growth 57 

desiring. Knowledge tells how and 
why, but affection impels action. Most 
educators, child culturists and reform- 
ers depend too largely on knowledge. 
This is why their efforts are but partly 
successful. Out of the heart are the 
issues of life. The heart is the source 
of primary impulses. Right loves give 
rise to righteous impulses. Any sys- 
tem of education or training that neg- 
lects the inspiration and cultivation of 
right affections must ultimately fail. 

Baby Christians 

Jehovah said, "A new heart will I 
give you, and a new spirit will I put 
within you." The acceptance of this 
gift through Jesus Christ is of first im- 
portance. No element of character is 
right that is not rooted in Divine love. 
Babies have a natural capacity for ac- 
cepting this gift and starting right. 
Jesus recognized this, and blessed them 
saying, ''Of such is the kingdom of 
Heaven.'* What folly, what insanity, 
to build the impulses of an unregener- 
ate heart into neurons and nerve-paths ; 
and thus produce a sin-full flesh to war 
against the Spirit in later years! If a 
baby's brain-paths are built from the 



58 Child Culture 

beginning by impulses that spring from 
Divine love, goodness is inwrought 
made natural and spontaneous. 

Reader, if you are interested in even 
one child, permit me to urge you to 
begin aright, and by teaching and ex- 
ample win the child's heart to love and 
trust Jesus. It can be done. If you 
are living a consecrated Christian life, 
the "Spirit of Truth" and the "Word" 
will guide you. Do not wait for ma- 
turity of mind. As soon as a baby is 
old enough to love and trust its parents, 
it is old enough to love and trust Jesus. 
Whoever can love and trust Him can 
receive Him, and with Him the gift of 
regeneration and Divine love. Put it 
to the test, in faith believing, and you 
will not be disappointed. Christ in the 
heart of your child as the fountain of 
its life, and growth by His grace, make 
possible righteous attainment. 

Creative Processes 

Love begets life. As is the love so is 
the life created. Pure love, pure life: 
vile affections, vicious life. What we 
love we tend to become. If we love 
war and strife, we are soon filled with 
a militant spirit. If we love art and 



(.race and Groivth 59 

beauty we embody them. If we love 
truth and knowledge, we acquire them. 
If we love God with the whole heart, 
mind and strength, we become God- 
filled. In short, we are the fruition of 
our affections. Therefore, create in a 
child right loves, and you are sure of 
right impulses, conduct and character. 
The heart of a child is the most sen- 
sitive, responsive center of life known 
to science. Wlioever has the grace and 
the wisdom to control this center aright 
can mould the disposition. The changes 
wrought in the character of bad boys 
by Judge Ben. B. Lindsey and other 
Juvenile Court Judges prove the power 
of love and confidence. Years ago one 
hundred waifs from New York City 
were distributed among Indiana farm- 
ers. One of the boys was taken to a 
Sunday-school picnic, where he rescued 
another lad from drowning. The crowd 
gathered about the young hero, extol- 
ling his courage and presence of mind. 
A minister drew the little, wet, shiver- 
ing body close to him and said, "What 
can we do to repay you for saving this 
boy's life?" The waif, with eyes full 
of tears from this touch of kindness, 
and lips blue with cold, said, 'Tlease, 
sir, if vou really want to do som'fin for 



60 Child Culture 

me, tell somebody to love me, wo'nt 
ya ?" This was his supreme need. This 
is what most waifs need to make good 
citizens of them. The mother-love 
squandered on cats, parrots and poo- 
dles, if wisely bestowed, would re- 
claim and transform all the waifs of 
America. 

Divine Grace 

Jesus said, "My grace is sufficient 
for thee." Divine grace is spiritual 
vitality communicated by the Lord to 
the members of His body. It is the 
sap from the vine to the branches, by 
which growth and fruition are brought 
forth. A branch must be connected 
with the vine to receive sap. Likewise, 
a soul must be vitally connected with 
Christ through regeneration to receive 
His grace. Whoever has this vital con- 
nection and has learned to appropriate 
grace has the secret of Christian 
growth. "I am the vine; ye are the 
branches." Whatever is in the vine is 
communicated by the sap to the 
branches. This sublime fact makes 
possible the realization of Christ 
formed within. Every inherent and ac- 
quired evil tendency is to be eradicated 
by putting off the old, sinful nature, 



Grace and Growth 61 

and putting on Christ. This transfor- 
mation is accomplished through grace. 
The process is : (a) Reckon the old self 
dead, that is, crucified with Christ; and 
keep it in the place of death, (b) 
Through love, faith and obedience ac- 
cept the fullness and perfection of the 
new life in Christ Jesus. 

To get this process into the mind and 
heart of a Christian child it should be 
told of Jesus' love for children; that 
He is ever present, able and willing to 
protect and help them by manifesting 
His goodness, wisdom and power in 
and through them. Teach the follow- 
ing facts: (i) Christ has put His 
Spirit in you. He is the source of your 
life, strength, purity, goodness, and all 
other virtues. This Spirit becomes 
manifest in you by your loving and 
trusting Jesus and asking Him in faith 
for it. (2) When you pray for grace 
to do right, know with absolute cer- 
tainty that it will be given you. Ac- 
cept it at once, then try your very best, 
and Christ's power will come into ex- 
pression, enabling you to do His will. 
(3) Recognize that your strength and 
victory are from the Lord. Thank 
Him for them and rejoice in His pres- 
ence, and both faith and strength will 



62 Child Culture 

increase. You can overcome every 
fault and temptation, and acquire any 
virtue through Divine grace. The Lord 
is your ever present help when you are 
striving to do right. 

When these teachings have been 
given, say to the child: 'The new 
spirit Jesus gives you, we will call the 
grace-boy, and the old spirit that wants 
to be naughty we will call the bad-boy. 
The grace-boy is God's child ; he is al- 
ways good, truthful, obedient, etc. This 
grace-boy is stronger than the bad- 
boy, and can, with Jesus' help, always 
do what he knows he should. This 
bad-boy wants to do wrong, but he 
can't do it unless he gets into the 
grace-boy's heart; so we will tell him 
to be gone. We don't want any bad- 
boy inside this grace-boy to make him 
do wrong." By teaching the child to 
identify himself with Christ as the 
grace-boy, and fixing the fact in mind 
and heart that he can resist all the sug- 
gestions of the bad-boy and be the 
strong, true grace-boy, he will have 
both the ideal and the power to grow 
aright. 

Christianity, to be apprehended or 
appreciated by a child must be ex- 
pressed through human personalities. 



Grace and Growth 63 

The surest way to awaken in children 
a love for the good, the pure, the noble, 
the beautiful and the true is to live 
these qualities before them. Another 
effective way is to read and tell them 
stories that embody right ideals and 
teaching. Children are hero-worship- 
ers. If their minds are filled with the 
heroes of sensational stories they want 
to be outlaws and criminals. If they 
hear and read of the heroes of truth 
and righteousness, of valor and self- 
denial, of patience and loyalty, they are 
inspired to become like them. 

Obedience and Progress 

"The chief end of man is to glorify 
God.'' God is glorified by becoming 
manifest in the human heart, and find- 
ing expression in purpose, thought and 
conduct. To the degree that one be- 
comes Spirit-filled and expresses the 
Christ-love, life and character, to that 
degree does one glorify God. This 
fundamental truth should be made the 
reason for absolute obedience to the 
Divine will as revealed in His Word. 
Again, what glorifies God most is best 
for man ; for His glory is man's attain- 
ment. Only by receiving His Spirit, 



64 Child Culture 

and giving expression to His attributes 
are true growth and real progress made 
possible. Failure to comply with this 
law is the cause of continuance in 
death, arrested growth, distorted per- 
sonality, and inconsistencies in life and 
character. Therefore every child 
should be taught that obedience is the 
primal virtue, the root from which all 
other virtues grow. No child should 
be allowed to disobey the laws of life, 
truth, justice, kindness, etc. Disobe- 
dience in childhood means lawlessness 
in youth. The country is surfeited 
with delinquent boys and girls because 
parents fail to insist on obedience. 
Make no mistake. The rights of a 
child are not infringed upon by exact- 
ing obedience to moral law. Liberty is 
not license; and the earlier a child 
learns to conform to law, to act in 
keeping with the rights of others, but 
most of all according to the expressed 
will of God, for His glory, the more 
correct will be its development and the 
higher its attainment. 

Love and Obedience 

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
with all thy heart, and with all thy souk 
and with all thy mind and with all thy 



Grace and Growth 65 

strength : thou shalt love thy neighbor 
as thyself." Why? Because perfect 
love with understanding begets right 
impulses, motives and conduct. This 
one great commandment fulfilled makes 
the fulfillment of all other command- 
ments spontaneous, agreeable and nat- 
ural. No soul can grow aright, or come 
to its highest and best that is not actu- 
ated by love. This perfect love is a 
gift of the Lord, and comes into ex- 
pression through His manifestation in 
the heart. When the child has this gift 
it should be inspired by precept, prayer, 
and persuasion to give expression to 
perfect love by perfect obedience. 
"Love is the fulfilling of the law." 

Many parents try to compel obedi- 
ence by punishment. This is better 
than to allow disobedience; but force 
should be a last resort. Others com- 
mand with an authority that implies 
coercion. This, too, is an appeal to 
law rather than grace. The grace- 
child is a child of love. Therefore, the 
wise Christian parent seeks first to in- 
spire love that will beget a desire to 
obey. Obedience gained from this mo- 
tive tends to right conduct in the fu- 
ture; while obedience obtained by 
coercion often begets a tendency to 



66 Child Culture 

break away from parental authority. 
Young men and women reared under 
strict compulsory obedience, when 
freed from restraint, often become law- 
less. Had their right conduct sprung 
from right affections there would have 
been no such lapse. From this and 
much more that might be said it is evi- 
dent that the first move toward obedi- 
ence from right motives is the inspira- 
tion of perfect love. 

Conscience and Obedience 

"Children, obey your parents, for 
this is right." The second great essen- 
tial is to teach the child that obedience 
is right in the sight of God; that it is a 
requirement of the law of growth; that 
it is a demand that must be met by 
everyone that would become strong, 
pure, noble and true; that conscience, 
the still, small voice that speaks in the 
heart, must be heeded. No grace-child 
can grow that does not listen to and 
obey this inner voice. 

'Tarents, provoke not your children 
to wrath." This admonition is vital. 
Too often a parent's command springs 
from irritation, selfishness, or that 
form of unreasoning bigotry that de- 



Grace and Grozvth 67 

mands obedience to display authority. 
The thoughtful parent acts from love 
and truth, speaks out of kindness, has 
a sympathetic understanding of a 
child's innate rights, and gains response 
by awakening right impulses. 

Perverting Children 

Parents that do not understand the 
laws of psychology frequently develop 
undesirable traits in their children by 
appealing to, or governing them 
through their appetites and propensi- 
ties rather than through intellect and 
moral sentiment. Thus ]\Irs. A gains 
obedience by promising her boy candy; 
Mrs. B hires her boy to do right; 
Mrs. C threatens to punish, and Mrs. D 
appeals to pride, telling her child how 
everyone will approve. Each secures 
action from a wrong motive ; and since 
every time we exercise a power we 
strengthen it, Mrs. A's boy becomes 
perverted in appetite; Mrs. B's boy 
develops the commercial instinct to 
where he will not do anything unless 
paid for it; Mrs. C's boy will not act 
unless driven; and IMrs. D's child be- 
comes vain, and has no conscience be- 
yond the approval of others. Each is 



68 Child Culture 

perverse in his way. Each mother 
wonders why her once good little boy 
has become so selfish, willful or dis- 
obedient. The why is evident. Con- 
tinual excitation of the propensities to 
the neglect of the moral sentiments has 
developed the former so in excess of 
the latter as to make them ruling mo- 
tives. The wise parent never appeals 
to propensities that are already too 
strong. Children that are governed 
through their appetites in infancy are 
usually governed by them in maturity. 

The Better Way 

Love, intelligence and conscience 
should rule everyone. A child should 
be governed through these three fac- 
tors in early life that it may be gov- 
erned by them in mature years. To 
develop these qualities they must be 
frequently appealed to and made the 
principal motives of conduct. Suppose 
a mother requests her child to do a cer- 
tain thing. If it refuses, she should 
explain why it should be done. This 
will awaken thought. If the child still 
refuses she should appeal to conscience, 
saying, ''You know this is right. You 
want to do right, etc." This will tend 



Grace and Growth 6^ 

to quicken conscience. Again, she may 
appeal to affection, that love for 
mamma may inspire obedience. If 
none of these are effective she should 
say quietly but firmly, ''You must. You 
know it is right. Now, if you will not 
do what you know you should, then 
for your good I must compel you." 
Here it is well to explain how all have 
to obey the laws of the state; or how 
papa and mamma have to do right; 
that it may see its case forms no ex- 
ception. Few mothers have the time 
to pursue this course often, neither 
should the child be so indulged as to 
come to expect it. But if done often 
enough to awaken these higher ele- 
ments and to show the child that there 
is a reason why. and a law that com- 
pels obedience, it will soon come to act 
without an explanation. 

It is sometimes necessary to spat lit- 
tle meddling fingers. The young ex- 
plorer is sure to trespass on the rights 
of others and meddle with forbidden 
things. 'Thou shalt not," applies to 
all ; and the child should early learn 
this lesson. Now, since it can feel 
before it can think, switching or spank- 
ing is often the quickest and surest 
way to make an impression. "Rut such 



70 Child Culture 

means should be used as little as pos- 
sible and stopped altogether when a 
child is old enough to be governed with- 
out them. 



Corporal Punishment 

"Foolishness is bound in the heart of 
a child; but the rod of correction shall 
drive it far from him." "He that 
spareth his rod, hateth his son ; but he 
that loveth him chasteneth him be- 
times." "The rod and reproof give wis- 
dom; but a child left to himself bring- 
eth his mother to shame." Some form 
of punishment is required in the train- 
ing of every child, but this does not 
necessarily imply whipping. As before 
indicated, the effort at correction should 
begin with the highest elements respon- 
sive to influence. If none of these, with 
appropriate suggestions and instruc- 
tions, prove effective, then corporal 
punishment is not only justifiable but 
commendable. The following sugges- 
tions will serve as a guide to construct- 
ive discipline : 

I. All punishment, whether mental 
or physical, should be corrective and 
remedial rather than penal or retali- 
ative. 



Grace and Growth 7\ 

2. All punishment should be the re- 
sult of due consideration of the nature 
and cause of the offense. Frequent 
slapping or whipping children without 
considering their rights or motives 
makes them deceitful, rebellious and 
discouraged. It makes them hate home 
and parents. It causes them to confide 
in others, and starts them on the way 
to recklessness and ruin. 

3. One should never punish in anger, 
lest the wrong thing be said or done; 
nor while the child is angry, because 
it is incapable of receiving right im- 
pressions. If the punishment is justi- 
fiable at all, it may as wxll be adminis- 
tered later when both parent and child 
are normal. 

4. It is unwise, dishonest and in- 
human to terrorize a child with threats 
that are never to be carried out. A 
warning of punishment should always 
be carefully worded, giving the exact 
reasons why, that the child may clearly 
understand its duty, and w^hat to ex- 
pect. Then, in case of disobedience, 
the promise should be fulfilled to the 
letter. 

5. With most children it is w^ell to 
make no inflexible rule. Conditions 
and circumstances must be taken into 



72 Child Culture 

account. Motives should always be 
considered more than conduct. A sin- 
gle wrong act seldom merits punish- 
ment, certainly not if the child has not 
been properly instructed. Only will- 
ful disobedience or habitual careless- 
ness justifies punishment. 

6. A reasonable degree of personal 
freedom is not only allowable but to be 
encouraged. Continuous restraint pro- 
duces contempt for law and authority. 
It is unjust and unwise to punish a 
child for expressing its individuality. 
As long as its intentions or acts do not 
wrong itself or others there is no cause 
for offense or chastisement. 

7. Before whipping, a child should 
be made to understand that it is not 
being punished out of revenge, but to 
help it to do right. The nature of the 
offense should be carefully gone over, 
that the child may see how willful per- 
sistence in wrong makes punishment 
necessary. It should be made to feel 
that the punishment is prompted by 
love and duty. When mind and con- 
science have been duly impressed with 
the gravity of the offense, and the 
necessity for corrective discipline, the 
strap should be used with sufficient se- 
verity to make an effective, lasting im- 



Grace and Grozvth 73 

pression. After whipping, the parent 
should take his child in his arms and 
pray God's blessing on the punishment. 

Love Never Fails 

Sportsmen once thought it necessary 
to whip their dogs and horses in train- 
ing; now they know that correct in- 
struction and kindness are more effect- 
ive. If parents always had the wisdom 
and grace to do and say the right thing 
at the right time, the normal child could 
be brought up aright without physical 
punishment. Not far from Chicago 
there is a wise, good doctor, who has 
adopted some forty children, and reared 
them without whipping. His method 
is right teaching for the head, and right 
loves in the heart. When a child is 
persistently disobedient he takes it to 
an upper room, goes over the case care- 
fully, making corrective suggestions: 
then together they take the problem to 
Jesus and ask for grace to do right. 
By this means right knowledge is given. 
right desire created, and grace to will 
and to do obtained. As a result al- 
ready more than a score of noble, 
Christian young men and women have 
gone out from his home to live the 
victorious life. 



74 Child Culture 

Family Devotion 

Family devotion should be made a 
vital means of Christian character 
building. Appropriate prayer in the 
morning for each child, calling its name 
before the Lord and asking in faith for 
grace and wisdom for the day, brings 
the child face to face with its needs, 
and with Jesus as its source of supply. 
This begins the day aright. In the 
evening, a family conference should be 
held, and the day's activities reviewed. 
If Mamma or Papa, Mary or Johnnie 
has made a mistake, it should be con- 
fessed. By the parents leading in these 
confessions, a frank statement is ob- 
tained from the children, which is in- 
valuable in keeping in touch with and 
directing them. No matter how bad 
the revelation, this is not the time for 
sharp rebuke or criticism, but for love, 
sympathy and patience. Any serious 
mistake should be taken up at a future 
time by one of the parents, and due 
counsel given in private. When all 
have confessed their mistakes, repented 
of them and accepted forgiveness, it is 
time for joyful testimony of tempta- 
tions resisted, of trials overcome and 
victories won in the name of Jesus. 



Grace and Groivth 75 

Enlarge and magnify in the mind of 
the child the power of the Holy Spirit 
to enable one to do and to be. Teach 
the children to depend on grace; to 
rejoice in it. Make the evening devo- 
tion one of praise and thanksgiving for 
this saving, strengthening and keeping 
power. Conclude with prayer, each 
being given an opportunity to take 
part. Ordinarily, the best time for 
these devotions is directly after the 
morning and evening meals. Only a 
few moments are required. Every 
statement should be brief, personal and 
direct, expressive of the immediate 
problems of each member of the fam- 
ily. Formal prayers and phrases often 
repeated are burdensome to children, 
and ineffective because not represent- 
ing an honest expression of a heart's 
desire. But direct talking to Jesus 
about personal needs, with praise and 
thanksgiving for His gifts, is a means 
of grace, interesting and inspiring. 

Pitv Children compelled to say, 
"We never heard our parents pray." 

Should such from paths of virtue stray. 
'Twould be awful, awful, awful. 



LITTLE LESSONS 

Self-Examination 

To proceed wisely in child-training 
one must analyze self. Personal pecu- 
liarities modify judgment and tend to 
determine one's way of governing. 
Those that are firm govern too largely 
through firmness. The affectionate ap- 
peal too much to the affections. The 
overconscientious exaggerate the sense 
of honor to the neglect of other essen- 
tial elements. Unless these natural 
tendencies are resisted one will often 
pursue a wrong course. Again, the 
faults of parents are frequently trans- 
mitted to their children in an exag- 
gerated form. The parents not recog- 
nizing these faults in themselves blame 
the children. Thus, the egotistical 
father cannot get along with his 
haughty daughter; and the quick-tem- 
pered mother has no patience with her 
fiery, impulsive boy. Parents, by dis- 
76 



Little Lessofts 77 

covering and correcting their own 
faults, will avoid conflict and be better 
able to govern their children aright. 

Individual Peculiarities 

There are no two children alike. 
The management and education of 
each child should be adapted to its pe- 
culiar needs. What is right for one 
may not apply to another, and be harm- 
ful to a third. There are seldom two 
children in a family that can be prop- 
erly developed or governed by the 
same methods. Human nature is so 
little understood that a child is often 
an enigma to its parents. But if they 
will study their own peculiarities, and 
watch the early tendencies of a child, 
they may discern its dominant traits. 
Training should be adapted to awaken 
and strengthen weak elements and curb 
those that are too strong. The ideal 
should include a healthy body, vigorous 
energies, normal appetites, pure affec- 
tions, worthy ambitions, refined tastes, 
pronounced moral convictions, a trained 
intellect, a decided will, a kind forgiv- 
ing spirit, a deep sense of reverence, an 
abiding faith in God, and an unfalter- 
ing zeal for truth and righteousness. 



78 Child Culture 

A Fundamental Law 

Like excites like. This fundamental, 
psychological law should ever be borne 
in mind in dealing with the child. An 
angry word excites anger; selfishness 
begets selfishness; love awakens love; 
a frank, communicative way unlocks 
the heart, and makes it easy for one 
soul to reveal its thoughts, desires and 
aspirations to another. Therefore the 
surest and quickest way to produce a 
given emotion in a child is to express 
it ourselves. Parents are too often 
actuated by impulse rather than by rea- 
son and judgment. A man with the 
wisdom and discretion to successfully 
manage great business interests will 
lose his temper in the management of 
his children. 

Silent Influences 

What we are, more than what we 
say, determines our influence over oth- 
ers. A calm, kind, considerate, self- 
possessed spirit is more effective in the 
government of children than many 
words without composure. Our silent 
influences become subjective sugges- 
tions. A dissipated or dishonest father 



Little Lessons 79 

may silently lodge suggestions that lead 
his children astray. He may teach the 
ways of truth and righteousness; but 
what he liz'cs is more potential than 
what he says. This applies with equal 
force to all conditions, good and evil. 
By living, desiring, thinking and will- 
ing the noble and the true, parents may 
silently create corresponding activities 
in their children. 

Partiality 

It is difficult to be impartial. De- 
spite our most earnest efforts we are 
prone to favor those we like. This nat- 
ural tendency should be guarded. To 
manifest indifference or dislike for one 
child and tender interest in another, 
when duty demands the same treatment 
of both, is inexcusable. Children are 
quick to discern slights and preferences. 
They are often discouraged because of 
partiality in the school-room. Par- 
tiality in the home makes them jealous, 
rebellious, or indifferent. Justice 
knows no law but equity. If our feel- 
ings incline us to favoritism they should 
be restrained that action may come 
from judgment and conscience. 



80 Child Culture 

Parental Authority 

Parental authority should be exer- 
cised only to the degree necessary to 
induce a child to do right. A child 
should be taught to do right for right's 
sake; to obey because parental author- 
ity represents law. This is wholesome 
discipline ; but to compel a child to do 
a thing just because its parent says 
so, without explaining why, often re- 
sults in a sense of slavery or rebellion. 
Continually domineering over children 
restricts their development. Many as- 
sume that when a child has been taught 
to obey every command without resist- 
ance, they have made a success of fam- 
ily government. Not necessarily! If 
obedience is the result of an undevel- 
oped individuality, a crushed will, or 
a suppressed conscience, their assumed 
success is a tremendous failure. The 
true parent is a protector, a counselor, 
a wise and sympathetic critic, a faith- 
ful friend. He never belittles a child's 
efforts, no matter how imperfect. His 
word is encouragement, his smile an 
inspiration, and his touch tenderness 
and love. 



Little Lessons 81 

Children's Rights 

Children have certain inalienable 
rights that parents should recognize. 
The fulfillment of a law from desire 
or intelligence makes one free from the 
law, and justifies liberty for continu- 
ance in a right course. Words and 
acts that wrong no one sHould not be 
restrained. The individual soul must 
obey its impulses, must feel, think, act, 
in order to grow; must come to the 
consciousness of, *T am; I can; I will." 
God encourages by law and precept the 
righteous expression of the inner na- 
ture. The wise parent recognizes this 
necessity of the child, and promotes 
freedom of choice and fullness of 
individualism. 

Encouraging Decision 

Every child should be trained to ex- 
ercise judgment and make decisions 
without the help of others. This is 
necessary for mental and moral growth. 
How can a child become a law unto 
itself if parents make all decisions and 
insist on compliance with them? In- 
stead of saying, "You can, or cannot 
do a thing," the proper way is to give 



82 Child Culture 

the facts and evidences for and against 
a proposition, then say, 'Think this 
matter over. You will want to do what 
seems right." A child had better do 
wrong occasionally through error of 
judgment or lack of will than fail to 
develop the elements of self-control. 
A small boy came running into his 
father's study, saying, *Tlease, Papa, 
give me a quarter. I want to go to 
the show with the boys." The father, 
although knowing the questionable 
character of the show, handed his boy 
the money, saying, "What about tak- 
ing Mamma and Sister? They like to 
see ponies and dogs perform." "No, 
Papa, I'm afraid it's a little tough, an' 
I wouldn't want to take them." "In- 
deed! Well, if it isn't fit for Mamma 
and Sister, shall you and I go ?" "Now, 
Papa, you don't want to go to that 
show." "O yes, I do, \i you are going. 
But you attend good shows ; and if this 
one is not first-class, you will not take 
me to see it." "Now, Papa, the boys 
are all going, an' I want to go with 
them." Here the father put his arm 
around his boy, and looking kindly 
into his face, said, "I know it's hard 
for a fellow to resist the gang-pull ; but 
you are strong and independent. You 



Little Lessons S3 

know what is right, and I can trust you 
to decide for us. Lie down on the sofa 
and think it over, and if you decide 
that you must go, let me know and Fll 
get ready to go with you." The boy 
threw himself down and turned and 
twisted from side to side. Finally, 
after being still a few minutes, he 
jumped up, threw down the quarter and 
said, "Papa, we won't go." The father 
slapped him on the back, hugged him 
close and said, "Good boy! you won 
out." This self-mastery was worth 
fifty decisions made by another. 

Self-Government 

For a child to act aright without 
external authority, it must know what 
is right and what is wrong. It must 
have a trained conscience sustained by 
grace, to give the desire to do right, 
and the will to do as well as it knows. 
The basis of right and wrong may be 
summed up thus : Any desire, thought, 
or act, that is truly helpful to self or 
others is right. Whatever injures self 
or others is wrong. But this must be 
made intelligible to the child according 
to its age and needs. Conscience can 
be strengthened by awakening love for 



84 Child Culture 

God and His commandments, and by 
teaching that right purposes are joy- 
seeds that produce future happiness; 
that the inner voice that prompts, "This 
is right," or 'That is wrong," must 
always be obeyed ; that disobedience to 
this is sure to bring pain, regret, and 
remorse, and if persisted in, sin and 
wickedness. The affirmations, *T can, 
I will, do what I know to be right: I 
have the strength, by Divine grace, to 
control not only my acts, but my 
thoughts and desires," tend to strength- 
en the will. When knowledge and con- 
science make a right choice, and the 
will is so sustained by grace as to per- 
sist in the choice, self-government and 
right conduct follow. 

Scolding and Threatening 

Herbert Spencer, in his essay on 
"The Rights of Children," says, 'Tt is 
a real sin against the child's nature to 
scold it. There may be times when a 
short, severe reprimand, which is far 
from being scolding, is necessary; but 
constant scolding, which is nothing but 
fault-finding, is an error into which 
many excellent parents fall. It has lit- 
tle place in any true system of family 



Little Lessons 85 

government." The child that is scolded 
for every little thing, and continually 
found fault with, often becomes hard- 
ened or spiteful. Its finer feelings are 
blunted, its self-respect dwarfed, and 
its worst elements accentuated. One 
should never make threats or promises 
that are not to be fulfilled. Obedience 
gained through deception reacts in dis- 
respect. A mother, traveling, said to 
her little boy, **If you don't sit down 
I'll throw you out of the car window." 
The child did not sit down. Doubtless 
his past experience had taught him that 
his mother often made threats and 
promises she did not fulfill. 

The Black Man 

Fear is father to many diseases. 
Fright shocks the nerves and may even 
cause death. Frightening children is a 
barbaric method of discipline. To com- 
pel a child to go to bed or stay in its 
room for part of a day by way of pun- 
ishment is commendable ; but to shut a 
timid child in a dark closet, or frighten 
it with stories of ''the black man," is 
pernicious. Such practices frequently 
result in neurosis, indigestion, hyper- 
sensitiveness, sleeplessness, peevishness, 



86 Child Culture 

morbid imaginings, etc. A mother 
once brought me a fretful, emaciated 
child, saying that it was often disturbed 
by bad dreams, and was intensely ner- 
vous. While we talked the little one 
went to the door. The mother, affect- 
ing fear, said, ''Come back quick. The 
black man'll get you! He's coming !'* 
The little one ran to its mother quiver- 
ing with fear. I said, "There is the 
cause of your child's bad dreams and 
extreme nervousness. These horrid 
day images are repeated at night." 
Many children have been frightened 
into cowardice, frightened into ill- 
health, frightened into premature 
graves, by bug-a-boo stories. 

A Willful Child 

A mother once consulted me concern- 
ing her seven-year-old boy, saying that 
he was so willful she could do nothing 
with him. She said she had scolded, 
whipped, and tried to buy him, but all 
to no avail; he would have his own 
way. I said to her, "Instead of whip- 
ping, I suggest that you give him a few 
moments of your time every morning. 
Approach him in a happy, communi- 
cative way, so as to awaken response. 



Little Lessons S7 

Tell him how every one must conform 
to the wishes of others part of the 
time, and that he will be happier and 
get along better as he learns to do so. 
Magnify the virtue of conformative- 
ness. Mention the times he has done 
right and how glad it made you. Do 
not refer to the times he has done 
wrong, for this will create opposition. 
Say to him in substance, that to-day we 
are going to try to make each other 
happy, etc. Get him to acquiesce ; and 
during the day frequently refer to how 
nicely you are getting along together. 
If he err, forgive him, and tell him you 
will help him to do better. Notice every 
little sacrifice and encourage him in it. 
Avoid opposition. Appeal to his love, 
self-respect, and conscience. Grad- 
ually, but surely, you can increase these 
to where they will become dominant.'* 
The mother adopted this method, and 
in a few weeks a marked change was 
evident. At the age of ten the lad was 
as con formative as the average boy. 
This plan has been used with good re- 
sults in many similar cases. It has 
proved effective whenever a parent has 
been faithful and tactful. It is applica- 
ble, with proper variations, in over- 
coming any undesirable trait. 



88 Child Culture 

Teachers and Governesses 

Great care should be exercised in the 
selection of teachers and governesses. 
Their authoritative position and inti- 
macy with the child make their influ- 
ence peculiarly potential in shaping the 
ideals and disposition of a child. No 
person should be employed for either 
of these positions whose life and mo- 
tives are not exemplary. Christian 
parents should not subject their chil- 
dren to the influence of teachers that 
are not Christians. Young people are 
prone to respect the opinions of college 
professors above those of their parents. 
Every year thousands of young Chris- 
tians are led astray in their thinking 
by the opinions of ethical but agnostic 
college men, whose lack of religious 
experience disqualifies them for safe 
leadership. It is a crime to place young 
children under the tutorage of moral 
delinquents. Vice and early indiscre- 
tions are frequently caused by the 
ignorance and perverseness of nurse- 
girls and servants. Parents cannot af- 
ford to intrust the early stages of char- 
acter-building to those that lack either 
the knowledge or the will to act wisely. 
It is highly significant that so many 



Little Lessons 89 

great historic characters received their 
early training from wise private tutors 
or intelligent, devoted parents. 

Parental Duty 

The privilege of parenthood bears 
with it certain obligations that cannot 
honorably be neglected, or intrusted to 
others. Affection is the natural mo- 
tive for the fulfillment of these obliga- 
tions; but when this is wanting, duty 
demands it. The right of children to 
be well-born is self-evident; but 
through ignorance or some other cause 
many are denied this right. If a child 
is not well-born, the parents' responsi- 
bility in rearing it is all the greater. In 
early infancy there are often require- 
ments that only love will meet, and a 
nurse or foster mother should not be 
expected to fully take the place of 
parents. All through the growing 
years children need that sympathetic 
understanding that exists only between 
parents and offspring. A trained gov- 
erness may do better in some things 
than an untrained parent; but there is 
a heart quality that is seldom developed 
aright in a child without an affectionate 
association with Father and Mother. 



90 Child Culture 

Liberal providing is good; wise in- 
struction can do much ; pure associates 
and wholesome environment are impor- 
tant; but all of these without parental 
affection and personal attention do not 
fulfill the whole law of duty. 

The Lost Boy 

Jean Paul says : "The education 
given by most fathers is but a system 
of rules to keep the child at a respectful 
distance from him, and to train it more 
in harmony with his comfort than the 
child's strength; or, at most, under a 
tornado of wrath, to impart as much 
instruction as he can scatter." Few 
men have either the tact or the time to 
keep in sympathetic touch with their 
boys from babyhood to maturity as a 
mother does with girls. This is unfor- 
tunate; there is something in every 
boy that demands the influence and 
sympathy of a mature man. Few boys 
develop aright without it. A father 
should be the chum of his son. The 
average boy feels that he can do what- 
ever Papa does. Therefore one of the 
essentials in directing a boy aright is 
to live an exemplary life before him, — 
with him. Seldom will a young man go 



Little Lessons 91 

astray if he have the loving counsel 
and sympathetic companionship of a 
noble-hearted, temperate, honest, pure- 
minded father. The lost boy is usually 
the neglected boy, or the boy whose 
father set a bad example before him. 
A father that is not willing to give up 
his bad habits in order to set a good 
example before his children is unfit to 
be the head of a family. While care- 
lessly scaling a precipice, a father was 
startled by the call of his little boy, 
*'Choose a safe path. Papa ; I'm follow- 
ing you." Would that all fathers might 
hear and heed this call ! 

Young People's Problems 

Young people do not understand 
themselves, and often feel that they are 
not rightly interpreted by others. Few 
parents can apprehend or keep up with 
the kaleidoscopic changes that accom- 
pany and follow adolescence. Conse- 
quently they lose the close and sympa- 
thetic touch that existed before this 
period. Young people will discuss their 
problems confidentially with someone. 
But unless parents respond sympathet- 
ically, an outsider is likely to be made 
the confidant. If a parent is so unwise 



92 Child Culture 

as to criticise ideals or question mo- 
tives, the opportunity of a lifetime may 
be lost. But, by suspending judgment 
and tactfully suggesting various views 
of the subject, and supplying such 
knowledge as may be needed, a right 
decision can usually be reached without 
opposition. In pursuing this course 
with hundreds of young people that 
have come to me with their problems, 
I have usually been able to get a frank 
statement of the whole matter, and to 
reverse, or at least modify, a wrong 
course. A good method is to prepare 
the way by the recital of personal or 
other people's experiences in like mat- 
ters, and thus teach without seeming 
to oppose. This accomplished, the next 
move is to suggest a number of ways 
out without expressing preference for 
any ; then, by weighing the possible ad- 
vantages of the several propositions, 
lead to a right conclusion. 

Young people, to develop aright, 
must be permitted to choose for them- 
selves, and thus learn to exercise the 
right of free moral agency. The 
change from parental authority to self- 
government is fraught with many dan- 
gers and difficulties; but it must be 
made, and usually the earlier the better. 



Little Lessons 93 

Inexperience, immaturity of judgment, 
and lack of self-control may result in 
error; but it is better that one make 
minor mistakes than to be kept depend- 
ent upon the judgment and will of 
others. In this transitional period, a 
parent should assume the role of coun- 
selor rather than dictator. The surest 
way to induce right choice is not by 
argument and opposition, but by right 
instruction, and prefixing the character 
through the awakening of right affec- 
tions. The youth that is early trained 
in obedience and the sense of duty will 
not willfully pursue a wrong course; 
and if he has developed the spirit of 
independence and moral courage, he is 
not likely to be led astray by com- 
panions. 

A young lady's social problems are 
among the most difficult to adjust, 
partly because sentiment exceeds judg- 
ment; but correct early training, high 
ideals, and Divine grace protect from 
serious mistakes. Tactful suggestion 
that encourages discrimination and dis- 
cretion may accomplish much without 
interference with personal freedom ; but 
direct opposition or dictation usually 
proves separative. The discreet mother 
tactfully assists her daughter in the se- 



94 Child Culture 

lection of friends, and prevents oppo- 
sition by creating in her mind such 
ideals as will prevent her from accept- 
ing undesirable company. 

Few parents give their children the 
right mental stimulus to awaken and 
train judgment and will-power. A boy 
cannot learn to drive while his father 
holds the lines; neither can he learn 
business except by doing it. Likewise, 
judgment, skill, and efficiency are 
gained only by experience. A wise 
father counsels with his growing boy 
as to the best way to do this and that, 
not for his instruction, but for the 
boy's training. A wise mother dis- 
cusses with her daughter various social 
and ethical questions to awaken thought 
and encourage right decisions. It is 
much easier to see the right or wrong 
of a given course in another than in 
one's self; but judgments formed by 
studying the problems of others assist 
in solving one's own problems. Raw 
recruits are trained by a few months of 
military drill to obey commands and 
courageously face death. Without 
training this would be impossible under 
fire. Likewise, young people trained 
to exercise judgment, control the emo- 
tions, and obey the dictates of con- 



Little Lessons 95 

science are prepared to meet the vicis- 
situdes of life : to decide and act aright 
under circumstances that might other- 
wise prove disastrous. 



VI 

SPECIAL DIRECTIONS 

Introduction 

Standing before us is a ragged, bare- 
footed, freckle-faced, blue-eyed boy. 
Who can tell what latent forces, what 
slumbering passions, what genius or 
native goodness lie hidden in that head 
and heart ? There may be the elements 
of the criminal, the orator, the phil- 
osopher, the statesman, or the philan- 
thropist. We know his inherent ten- 
dencies are subject to modification, sus- 
ceptible to influence and capable of end- 
less improvement; therefore let us do 
all we can to direct his energies, de- 
velop his genius, and make him a manly 
man. Let us remember that the boy 
of today is the citizen of tomorrow, 
whose private character and public de- 
meanor will affect the social, commer- 
cial, intellectual, and moral status of a 
commonwealth. 

96 



Special Directions 97 

Food and Growth 

The right feeding of children is a 
difficult and important problem. Be- 
cause of a wrong dietary system, and 
the readiness with which the appetite 
of a child is perverted, it is little short 
of crime to allow children to select 
their own foods and eat whatever and 
whenever they choose. Instinct in our 
race is so perverted that the average 
child, if unprotected, soon comes to de- 
mand an excess of sweets, pastries, con- 
diments, etc., which disturb the func- 
tions of the body. Perfect digestion 
and assimilation require that food be 
taken into the mouth in small quantities 
and thoroughly masticated. The fre- 
quent desire to eat something between 
meals is more often caused by fermen- 
tation and consequent irritation in the 
stomach than by actual need of nour- 
ishment. The wise parent selects sim- 
ple foods, and never permits the use of 
confections, or eating at irregular 
periods. Overeating, the use of un- 
wholesome food, and the habitual in- 
dulgence of the palate, are the chief 
causes of infant mortality, arrested 
growth, and the diseases peculiar to 
childhood. Thousands suffer through 



98 Child Culture 

life from nervousness, limited vitality, 
and other forms of ill-health, because 
of wrong dietary habits in childhood. 

Food and Character 

A great scientist has said, *'Let me 
feed the criminal classes of any country 
for a hundred years and I will banish 
crime." Excessive flesh eating pro- 
motes animality. Herbivorous birds 
and beasts, if fed on meats, become 
cruel. Carnivorous birds and animals 
restricted to a fleshless diet for a few 
generations lose their savage proclivi- 
ties. This law applies in a general way 
to man, but is more potential in the 
child. Children inclined to be vicious 
or cruel should not be given meat. 
Those deficient in spirit, energy, and 
courage may use it once a day with 
good results. The appetite for strong 
drink is often produced by the use of 
condiments, tea, coffee, and tobacco, 
which create a demand for stronger 
stimulants. Thousands have gone the 
way of intemperance, vice, and crime, 
impelled by appetites perverted by un- 
wholesome food prepared by Mother's 
hand. 



special Directions 99 

Medicine and Children 

It is unwise to give medicine to 
babies except under the direction of a 
physician. The doctor seldom drugs 
his own children. Experience has 
taught him that practical hygiene and 
prevention are better than medicine. 
Others should follow his example. The 
immoderate and indiscriminate use of 
mineral poisons and patent medicines 
has slain thousands and robbed tens of 
thousands of health and vitality for 
life. Mortality is greatest among chil- 
dren that are frequently dosed. Sooth- 
ing syrups alleviate pain by making the 
nerves temporarily insensible, but sel- 
dom cure. To ''kill pain" without re- 
moving its cause is always dangerous. 
There is an excellent suggestion in a 
boy's essay on *'Pins." which concluded 
with the statement. 'Tins have saved 
lots of people's lives by their not swal- 
lowing them." The same may be said 
of mineral poisons and many patent 
medicines. 

Physical Reactions 

All subnormal and defective children 
should receive the attention of a com- 



100 Child Culture 

petent physician. No congenital defect 
nor long-standing, abnormal or patho- 
logical condition is without psycholog- 
ical effects. Backward children are 
usually so from some purely physical 
cause. Incorrect breathing inhibits 
brain-functioning. Adenoids arrest 
mental growth. Imperfect vision causes 
headache and inability to study. Im- 
paired digestion means malnutrition, 
anaemia, and neurasthenia, with all 
their attendant evils. A careful exam- 
ination of the dull, the queer, the 
hyper-sensitive, the subnormal, the 
peevish, the vulgar, and the vicious 
usually reveals a pathological cause. 
All physical functions and mental func- 
tions are related to connecting brain- 
centers, through which the conditions 
and activities of one modify the other. 
These effects may not always be dis- 
cernible, but they exist. No bodily re- 
actions are more common than those 
that affect the emotional and volitional 
centers. Therefore, because a child 
with a defective body excels in its 
studies is no evidence that its physical 
abnormality has no psychological reac- 
tion. Physical culture and right bodily 
development are not only necessary for 
health, strength, and prolonged vigor, 



special Directions 101 

but are essential to normal growth of 
mind and morals.* 



Physical Hygiene 

Every child should be trained in 
cleanliness and the formation of right 
bodily habits. Erect posture and deep 
breathing should be insisted upon ; also 
regular hours for sleep, study, play, and 
work. Children should be trained to be 
temperate in all things beneficial, and to 
totally abstain from whatever is harm- 
ful. All should receive definite teach- 
ing concerning the physical, mental, 
and moral effects of stimulants and 
narcotics. t Boys especially should be 
prefixed by right teaching, suggestion, 
and Christian influence, against preva- 
lent vices. A boy should be so set 
against the use of tobacco and alcoholic 
drinks before he is ten years old that no 
temptation nor external influence can 
induce him to change. The main thing 
needed to protect children from the bad 



* See paragraph on "Influence of Mind 
Over Body and Body Over Mind," in the 
Author's lecture on "Man, Mind, Divine 
Healing," published in his book. "Method." 

t For a concise statement of the effects of 
tobacco and cigarettes on boys and youths, 
see the Author's book, "The New Man." 



102 Child Culture 

influence of others is the sense of inde- 
pendence, and the will to do as well as 
they know. It is the '"gang-pull" that 
leads the average youth astray. It 
takes a strong, independent character 
to stand out against the practices of 
friends and companions; but the boy 
that can and will do so gains in power 
and popularity. His strength and free- 
dom command respect even from those 
that lack the disposition or the moral 
courage to follow his example. There- 
fore, by teaching independence of 
thought and conduct, and impressing a 
boy with the sense of his moral worth 
and personal responsibility, he is pre- 
pared to resist temptation. 

Moral Hygiene 

The chief end of all true culture is 
soul development. This requires the 
subjection of the appetites and propen- 
sities to the higher sentiments. Many 
that never use stimulants or narcotics 
are intemperate in eating, or in the ex- 
pression of their passions, emotions, 
thoughts, or sentiments. Anger, jeal- 
ousy, hatred, greed, fear, dishonesty, 
pride, and all other abnormal psychic 
activities, not only inhibit development 



Special Directions 103 

of the higher nature, but produce tox- 
ine poisons that cause disease; while 
happy, hopeful, trustful emotions pro- 
mote physical health, intellectual 
growth, and moral development. Chil- 
dren should be taught to put away ab- 
normal emotions by Divine grace. Too 
much emphasis cannot be placed on this 
proposition. Willful, habitual yielding 
to temper, jealousy, despondency, and 
other forms of selfishness is a preva- 
lent cause of neurosis, dyspepsia, early 
decline, and premature death. Every 
discordant vibration is injurious to 
spirit, soul, and body. 

Energy and Activity 

Some children are naturally ener- 
getic and intensely active. Such must 
be given something to do or they will 
get into mischief. Their play and work 
should be so diversified as to fully oc- 
cupy their time, yet prevent them from 
overdoing. Others are constitutionally 
deficient in energy. Such should be 
given easy tasks, and encouraged with 
the assurance that they can do them. 
As energy increases, tasks may be made 
more difficult. Such children are im- 
proved by working with others. They 



104 Child Culture 

should take part in out-of-door sports 
that require physical exertion and in- 
crease energy. All girls and boys 
should be taught to employ every con- 
scious moment. Idleness restricts de- 
velopment. It begets vice. An idle life 
is an unhappy life. An inactive mind is 
always susceptible to evil impressions. 
Hard work gives strength of body, 
hard study strength of mind. The boy 
that does not learn to work rarely suc- 
ceeds. Idle girls seldom become good 
women. 

Frugal Habits 

Children should be taught to earn 
and save money. They should be en- 
couraged to start a bank account as 
early as the age of five, and thus form 
habits of self-restraint by saving their 
pennies. The child of wealth needs to 
learn economy quite as much as the 
child of poverty. Extravagance begets 
vice, fosters pride, and degrades char- 
acter. Some are naturally acquisitive 
and only need to be guided aright. 
Others are deficient in the ability to 
make and to save. Such should be 
given an opportunity to earn money, 
and be required to provide themselves 
with a given article of clothing, such as 



special Directions 105 

stockings, gloves, etc. By this means 
they will learn to save, and to care for 
the things they have bought. This 
early inculcation of the providing and 
care-taking spirit will prove of great 
value in later years. 

Self-Respect 

Self-respect strengthens character 
and enables one to command the respect 
of others. It is a constant check against 
doing anything unworthy. When this 
quality is deficient, it may be strength- 
ened by encouraging a child to take 
pains ; to do well whatever it does ; to 
complete everything undertaken in an 
orderly way; and then complimenting 
it for its achievements. The conscious- 
ness of intelligence, efficiency, right- 
eousness, and courage gives true self- 
appreciation. Never should a child be 
called stupid, lazy, mean, or anything 
calculated to lessen its self-reliance. 

Sensitiveness 

Many children are super-sensitive by 
nature. They are easily wounded by a 
word, and are too responsive to praise 
and blame. Such should neither be 



106 Child Culture 

praised nor blamed, but influenced 
through other elements until the super- 
sensitiveness is outgrown. This undue 
desire for the approval of others fre- 
quently combines v^ith a personal pride 
to that degree that expediency takes 
the place of conscience, and the ruling 
motive is not what is right or best but 
what others will say. If not corrected, 
this tendency results in vanity and 
artificiality. 

Self -Protection 

Self -protection is the first law of na- 
ture. The surest way to protect one's 
self against temptation is to be pro- 
nounced on the side of right, to mani- 
fest virtue, and seek it in others. Hu- 
man nature is weak, and needs the 
sustaining power of Divine grace. It 
is a sin to tempt others or put one's self 
under temptation. The child should be 
taught to obey the laws of propriety; to 
be discreet, and to keep its own coun- 
sel. It should know that a prayerful 
spirit protects; that the expression of 
aggressive goodness and positive virtue 
tends to produce these in others and 
destroy their opposites. 



Special Directions 107 

Forethought 

Forethought and carefulness are not 
hereditary but acquired traits. Some 
children learn to be careful and 
thoughtful more readily than others, 
but all require training in these quali- 
ties. A good plan is to point out to a 
child, after it has made a mistake, how 
it might have avoided the error had it 
noticed or duly considered. By fre- 
quently speaking of those times when a 
child has exercised forethought, the 
habit will be encouraged. Thought ful- 
ness in planning, in nicely folding its 
clothing, in picking up its toys, in keep- 
ing everything in order, should be so 
instilled as to become habitual. Chil- 
dren trained to think before they speak 
or act are saved from many mistakes. 

Self-Sufficiency 

Many seem incapable of entertaining 
themselves. They must have some ex- 
ternal stimulus — playmates, friends, or 
amusements. Left alone, they are 
wretched. This condition often leads 
to questionable associates, entertain- 
ments, etc. Every child lacking in self- 
sufficiency should be required to play, 
read, and study alone a part of the 



108 Child Culture 

time. Later it should be encouraged 
to meditate, and learn in the school of 
solitude the secret of peace and content- 
ment, i. c, that the ''Kingdom of 
Heaven" is within. When this has be- 
come the habitual state of conscious- 
ness, external conditions are of sec- 
ondary importance. 

Expression 

All children should be trained in the 
art of correct speech, and clear, con- 
cise expression. Definite wording re- 
quires, and thereby promotes, definite 
thinking. Idle chatter should be for- 
bidden; but thoughtful conversation, 
the recital of instances and impressions, 
and the free expressions of plans, 
wishes, emotions, and sentiments 
should be commended. When a child 
has attended church or an entertain- 
ment, or has witnessed any unusual oc- 
currence, it should be encouraged to 
tell its impressions. It should first be 
permitted to tell the story in its own 
way without interruption. Then the 
matter should be reviewed, and correc- 
tions and improvements suggested. In 
this way a child will be trained in per- 
ception, memory, and the power of 
expression. 



Special Directions 109 

Imagination 

Imagination, or creative fancy, is the 
highest power of the human mind. It 
should be cultivated in most children. 
In some, however, it is so strong as to 
cause them to exaggerate. This ten- 
dency can usually be overcome by call- 
ing a child's attention to its misstate- 
ments in the presence of the facts. 
Many children exaggerate through a 
desire to excite approval or surprise in 
others. Such should be taught that the 
exact truth is always more interesting 
than an enlarged account. There is a 
wide difference between this tendency 
to magnify the truth and that decep- 
tion that arises from selfishness or a 
weak conscience. The latter can be 
eradicated only by persistent moral 
training; the former is usually out- 
grown through humiliating experi- 
ences. 

The Affections 

Law may rule in courts of justice, 
but love reigns in human hearts. All 
of the emotions should receive system- 
atic training from babyhood. Every 
emotion should be subject to judgment 
and conscience. It is natural for boys 
and girls to have sweethearts. But 



110 Child Culture 

they should know that these attach- 
ments spring from blind impulses that 
must be educated and controlled. Be- 
fore the period of adolescence they 
should be taught the privileges and re- 
straints of friendships with the oppo- 
site sex. Boys should be taught to re- 
spect all girls and protect them as they 
would their sisters. Girls should be 
taught to shield their boy friends from 
improprieties. They should know that 
straightforward, aggressive goodness 
prevents misunderstandings. As a 
rule it is better for boys and girls to 
grow up together, but they should be 
discouraged from continuing the ex- 
clusive company of one. It is easier 
to direct the emotions of those that 
have the companionship of the oppo- 
site sex than of those that do not. The 
girl that has never been allowed to as- 
sociate with boys until adolescence is 
prone to fall in love with the first young 
man she becomes acquainted with. 
Boys denied the refining influence of 
girls are likely to be uncouth or 
immoral. 

Good Manners 

True politeness is true kindness deli- 
cately expressed. A courteous, agree- 



special Directions 111 

able manner means much in the strug- 
gles of life. A gruff, rude, or boorish 
exterior closes the door of opportunity 
for many truly good men. The lady 
that is gracious and kind to all becomes 
a favorite. ''Company manners" are 
usually insincere and fail at a critical 
moment. The artificiality and affecta- 
tion of much that passes for etiquette 
is not worth embodying in the mind of 
a child. But politeness that comes from 
a true appreciation of the fitness of 
things, a right regard for the happiness 
of others, and a due self-respect, fills 
an important place in character build- 
ing. Good breeding is distinctively a 
product of the home; it is not an occa- 
sional effort or company drill, but a 
thing of daily practice, prompted by 
honest motives and a frank expression 
of the inner life. The well-bred child 
goes out into the world safeguarded by 
self-respect and a clear concept of 
proprieties. 

The Sense of Honor 

**An honest man is the noblest work 
of God." The paramount need of hu- 
manity is moral conviction. The sense 
of honor should be cultivated in all 



112 Child Culture 

children. To do this, parents should 
be strictly honest with them. The com- 
mon custom of deceiving children, and 
practicing little deceptions in their 
presence, educates them in dishonesty. 
A child should be placed on its honor 
and encouraged to be faithful and 
straightforward in all ways. If it is 
untruthful and afterward confesses, it 
should not be scolded or punished, lest 
it be driven to further deception in self- 
protection. The better way is to for- 
give the present error, thank the child 
for its frankness, and give such sugges- 
tions as will prevent a repetition. 

Kindness and Forgiveness 

A kind, forgiving spirit is one of the 
richest gifts from God to man. The 
child has a natural capacity for receiv- 
ing and expressing this spirit. This 
capacity should be increased, and its 
expression encouraged by simple stories 
of the birds of the forest, the little ani- 
mals of the fields and woods, and of 
the kind ways, words and deeds of good 
children. When a child has been 
wronged, it should be taught to for- 
give, to return good for evil ; not sim- 
ply because duty demands it, but be- 



special Directions 113 

cause this is the way to grow into that 
largeness of h'fe that brings peace and 
happiness. The little one that is al- 
lowed to be unkind to pets or play- 
mates, or to harbor the spirit of re- 
venge, becomes selfish and severe. 

Love's Way to Victory 

The time has come to conclude these 
heart talks, and love pleads for the 
last word. That Jesus Christ may be 
glorified, permit me, dear Reader, to 
urge you to see the young child as a 
dweller in the Eden of innocence, des- 
tined by heredity to pursue the ways of 
desire into sin, except it be born anew 
and come to live by Divine grace. See, 
also, that the way of attainment is by 
awakening right affections through 
right teaching. From right affections 
come right volitional impulses. Seek- 
ing truth for truth's sake leads life in 
love's highways, and produces impres- 
sions on mind and heart that bring the 
soul into harmony with the Divine will. 
Thus you tell a child the facts about a 
flower; how the little seed w^aited in 
the cold ground until the spring-time; 
how the warmth of the sun kissed it 
and the life came forth; how it grew 



114 Child Culture 

day by day, gathering nourishment 
from the earth, inbreathing carbon 
from the air until, through patience 
and obedience, it blossomed in beauty 
and filled the air with fragrance. This 
simple story of truth will awaken love 
for the flower, and bring the child into 
a tender, considerate attitude toward it. 
By this process right impulses may be 
produced toward all things, laws, cus- 
toms, commandments, institutions, and 
persons. This is the whole secret of 
righteous growth. This is the grace 
method of creating the motives and 
determining the conduct of a noble 
Christian character. 



APPENDIX 

Personal Purity 

"My people perish for lack of knowl- 
edge." Ignorance will not perpetuate in- 
nocence. True virtue is born of intelli- 
gence and positive goodness. It is crime 
to allow children to enter the adolescent 
period without proper sex instruction; but 
knowledge alone is insufficient. Chastity 
is of the heart. A bitter fountain cannot 
give forth sweet water. A pure regenerate 
heart gives rise to pure desires and chaste 
affections, but an unregenerate heart will 
send forth impure impulses, which are sure 
to find expression in thought and conduct. 
Therefore a cleansed, Spirit-filled heart is 
the only effective safe-guard. 

The discussion of vice propagates it. 
Lewd suggestions give rise to abnormal 
desires. Experience proves that the more 
children think and talk about sex problems, 
the more likely they are to become per- 
verted. Vice may be learned from others, 
but it frequently results from abnormal 
physical conditions or hereditary tenden- 
cies. Inchastity is promoted by unclean- 
liness, and by the use of stimulants, condi- 
ments and too much meat or sweets. 

Little chlidren should be taught that they 
are never alone; that the great loving Father 
sees and knows every act and thought; that 
it is wrong and wicked to purposely think, 
desire, or do anything they would be 
ashnmed tn tell Tapa and Mamma. Each 
child should early receive plain, clear teach- 

115 



116 Child Culture 

ing about the beginning of living organisms 
as a part of simple nature studies. Later 
they should receive private, confidential in- 
struction regarding sex hygiene, approach- 
ing adolescence, and the relation of the 
creative principle to growth and vigor of 
body and mind. This instruction should be 
adapted to the individual child's disposition 
and needs. What is proper and necessary 
for one may be out of place or harmful to 
another. 

Some authors advise waiting until a child 
asks questions on these subjects before giv- 
ing information. Experience proves this 
plan to be dangerous.* Many children are 
too sensitive to ask their parents, and re- 
ceive from companions a morbid impression 
of the whole subject. Few will ask until 
the awakening of the sex instinct, when it is 
often too late to protect them from first 
mistakes. Every child should be trained 
to hate inchastity, and to delight in per- 
sonal purity, positive virtue and a clean 
life. 



* It is easy to show a child of four how the 
seeds of baby flowers are formed. Then to ex- 
plain how all livinj; things grow from seeds; how 
the esrscs from which birds and animals grow are 
but another form of seeds. And from this to ex- 

Elaln where birdies, bunnies and babies come from ; 
ow bird's eggs hatch in a nest, but that bunnies 
and babies have their nests inside the Mamma's 
body until old enough to live outside. Some of 
the better books on this sublect are : "The Spark 
of Life," by Margaret W. Morlev ; "Four Epochs 
of Life." by Dr. Elizabeth Hamilton Muncie ; 
"How Shall I Tell My Child," by Mrs. Wood- 
Allen Chanman ; "Life's Beginnings." and other 
books by Dr. Winfleld Scott Hall. The author's 
book, "The New Man." contains spiritual teaching 
relative to sex. of vital importance, published in 
no other work. Any of these books may be or- 
dered from the Riddell Publishers, 7522 Garrison 
Ave., Chicago, 111. 



Published Lectures and Books 

By 

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Method — The Eiddell Lectures — Complete 
text of nine lectures on Applied Psy- 
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postpaid, $2.00. 

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of Eliminating Faults, Embodying Vir- 
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cloth, postpaid, 65c. 

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THE 

PSYCHOLOGY 

OF 

SUCCESS 

AND 

Human Nature Studies 

This book opens with Mr. Riddell's 
most helpful lecture, "The Psychology of 
Success." It is pre-eminently practical. 
It tells how to acquire the elements of 
success and develop a strong, positive, 
winning personality. It gives one hundred 
practical suggestions on the Choice of 
Pursuits, Business Methods, Salesmanship 
and Advertising, Personal Aids to Success, 
and the Problems of the Professional Man 
It contains a series of interesting Human 
Nature Studies, dealing with the Origin 
and Nature of Man, Old and New Psy- 
chology, Tempermental and Constitu- 
tional Differences, the Factors of Mind 
and the Processes of Mentation. This 
book is of priceless value to all who would 
understand human nature or make the 
most of life and its opportunities. 

320 Pases. Cloth. Price, Postpaid, 91.50. 

RIDDELL PUBLISHING CO. 

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CHICAGO, ILL, 



HEREDITY 

The Cream of Twenty Chautauqua Lec- 
tures on Heredity, Prenatal Culture, 
Psychology, Brain Building 
and Soul Growth. 

Bj NETVTONN. BIDDELI 

Thla Work Is Not Only Attthentlo but Rleh 
In Original Matter. 

Mr. RIddell Is a recognized authority on 
Heredity. In gathering the subject matter 
for this book and his lectures he has con- 
sulted ever.y meiiion u v/oi.v un the subject 
published In the English language. He trav- 
eled constantly for fifteen years, visiting 
nearly all of the principal cities on the 
continent, consulting with hundreds of edu- 
cators, prison wardens, physicians and de- 
tectives. He personally examined the psy- 
chology and heredity of several thousand 
persons, including nearly ten thousand chil- 
dren, representing all classes and conditions, 
over five thousand convicts, and as many 
more Insane and feeble-minded patients. 
Heredity CxplaJrxed. 

Mr. RIddell reduces all the laws, facts 
and phenomena of reproduction and heredity 
to a definite science and explains them In 
language so simple that a child can com- 
prehenr" them. 

TKe Book Is Well Made. 

It contains 350 large octavo pages, 6x9, 
weight 2 lbs. It is printed from new type 
on heavy rag paper of good quality. It la 
substantially bound In silk finished cloth, 
with gold stamp on side and back. 

Over 1200 Marginal References. 

Every one of its 1.1G4 paragraphs contalnn 
ft concise statement of a fact. law or prrpM 
eltlon and la supplied with one ur mc-e I'-jtmI 
Bide heads. The work is fully indexed. 
Making it the most complete book ever pub- 
lished on the lubjecta treated. 

Price by Mall or Ezprecs, Po«tpaId, $2.00. 

RIDDELL PUBLISHING CO. 

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CHICAGO, ILU 



Comments of the Press. 

"A profoundly Interesting and instructive 
book, treating of subjects clearly and mod- 
estly. * ♦ ♦ If millions, instead of thou- 
sands, could take in its lessons the world would 
be benefited." — The Inter-Ocean» 

"It is evident from a perusal of this volume 
that the author is a close student of nature. 
The practical truths contained In his book 
make it a valuable addition to any library."— 
New England Journal of Education. 

"Parents and hose who may become parents, 
will find much in this book which will command 
their attention." — The Congregationalist. 

"It is written with great discretion and much 
tact and presents the subject in an interesting 
and instructive way. — New Orleans Daily 
Picayune. 

"The book is reliable, up-to-date and easy of 
comprehension." — Union Signal. 

"It has evidently been prepared with much 
carefulness of observation and of statement, 
Infinite misery might be prevented if the facts 
given were commonly understood and duly 
needed." — Chicago Tribune. 

"The author's ideas are presented in a clear 
and logical manner, with an earnestness which 
should carry with it the lessons the work is 
intended to convey." — Toledo Blade. 

"The author's conclusions are drawn from 
a wide range of facts coming under his own 
observations, both of well bom and ill born 
children." — The Outlook. 

"It is a work in which any student of human 
nature, pastor, educator or professional man 
will find unlimited source of desired informa- 
tion." — Denver Republican. 

"He is considered the foremost authority 
in the country on Heredity, Psychology and 
kindred topics. His work abounds in first hand 
facts and original matter." — Omaha World- 
Herald. 

"It is a work of mature thought and cultured 
style." — Medical Science. 

"It should be read by every man and woman 
In America. Its style is clear, untechnical and 
entertaining as it is instructive. The book is 
a model of the printer's art." — Human Natxire. 



METHOD 

THE RIDDELL LECTURES 

Complete text of the following lectures as 
g:iven at Chautauqua Assemblies and under the 
auspices of Ministerial Associations: 

No. 1. Brain Building and Soul Growth. 

No. 2. Man, Mind, and Divine Healing. 

No. 3. Psychic and Spiritual Phenomena. 

No. 4. Science and Religion. 

No. 5. Man's Fall, Christ's Atonement. 

No. 6. How Man May Become In-Christed. 

No. 7. Law, Prayer, Faith, Miracles. 

No. 8. Service, the Christian Clinic. 

No. 9. Christ and Civic Problems. 

No. 10. The Letter and the Spirit. 

INNER TEACHING 

These Lectures Contain Teaching by the 
Holy Spirit on Regeneration, Vicarious Atone- 
ment, the Blood of Jesus Christ; the Genera- 
tion of Life in the Kingdom of God ; the Law 
of Special Providences; Grace, Faith, and 
other Christian Mysteries of Vital Importance 
to Truth Seekers, Christians and Christianity. 

Pacific Christian Advocate: It is a rare 
man who can take such profound questions as 
those discussed by Mr. Riddell and make them 
so entrancingly interesting that a child can un- 
derstand and appreciate them. He clears up 
difficulties, he illumines the dark places, and 
brings the soul consciously in communion with 
God. We commend him to our people every- 
where. 

320 Pages, Cloth. $1.50, PostpiucL 



The New Man 



OR 



Kni^ntsofttie Twentieth Century 

Bx Newton N. BlddeU 



A Twenty-Five Cent Book of One Hundred FagM 

that has Transformed the Lives of Ten 

Thousand Men and Put Half a 

Millioa to Thinking. 

One Hundred TKousand Men 

Have attended Mr. Riddell's lecture on "The 
New Man.*' of which this book Is an en- 
larged version. It Is uniformly conceded to 
be the most refined, instructive and Inspir- 
ing lecture on the subject of man's creative 
forces before the public. No man can listen 
to or read it without being materially bene- 
fited. It was published at the request of 
thousands of professional men and is being 
circulated for the good It may do. 

EVERY BRAIN WORKER IN AMERICA 
SHOULD HEAR IT.—Judge John Maxwell. 

It moved Grand Rapids as no other lec- 
ture ever has. — J. K. Johnson. 

I Words are Inadequate to express the 
moral and spiritual value of this lecture. — 
W. B. Edmonds, Oen. Sec. Y. M. G A., 
Jackaonvillet III. 

I never listened to such a story from hu- 
man lips. If Andrew Carnegie should en- 
dow this lecture with $100,000. and send 
Prof. Riddell forth, the inspired prophet 
to the masses, he would do more good than 
by building twenty libraries.— iJev. Oh<u. 
W. Whorrall. D.D. 

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SERVICE 

AND BIBLE STUDY 



A. New Plan of Personal Evangelism 
Through the Spirit and the Word 



How to Vitalize the Church and Increase 
Its Membership and Efficiency. 

What the Bible Teaches About God — Father, 
Son, Holy Spirit; Man — Innocent, Degener- 
ate, Regenerate; Satan, Sin, Death, Hell; Re- 
demption, Atonement, Forgiveness, Regener- 
ation; Justification, Grace, Faith, Prayer, 
Works; the Kingdom of God; the Coming of 
the King. 

How to Become a Christian. 

The Essentials of Conversion — Repentance, 
Belief, Confession, Baptism. The Way of Dis- 
cipleship — The New Inheritance, Self-renunci- 
ation, Living by Grace, Abiding in Christ. 

God's Answers to Satan's Suggestions. 

Convicting the Unsaved — The Command- 
ments, Promises, Assurances. The Divine 
Right of Christians, Bible Texts for Every 
Need. 

120 PagM, Cloth, 30ci Pap^r, 25c. 

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